Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Yes, Virginia, There IS a Planning Commission. Sort of.

This morning, at last, the Planning Commission posted their meeting and agenda for tonight, less than 12 hours before the event. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. I'm not even sure it's legal to give the public so little notice.

On the agenda is the Kennedy Kendrick retirement community development. I saw the initial Planning presentation for this development and it seemed fairly well-thought out and a good adaptive reuse of the high school. They were just supposed to iron out a few kinks, which should be the gist of tonight's presentation.

Two items of new business are listed: 1) Vacating of Logan Street, and  2) Recommendation to start the Public Process for the proposed Zoning Ordinance.

Number 2 basically means that the product of the zoning workshops some of us went to in August and September will now be presented for public comment. I think a lot of potential problems were caught in the workshops. I hope the final revised codes will give the Zoning Board and Planning Commission the teeth they need to say "no" to bad development ideas. Still, it will ultimately be up to the rest of us to police them, to make sure they don't allow harmful variances. Though, honestly, they seem to do it regardless whether the public protests or not.

That item about vacating Logan Street? I have no idea what that is. Do they mean houses? No specific address was given, not even an indication of East or West Logan. Or was it a typo?  I sent Jayne Musonye an email asking for clarification. I'll update this blog today as soon as I find out (assuming I ever do). If anyone reading this knows what it is, please comment or send me a message.

If you just want to go find out in person, the meeting is 7 to 9 pm at Municipal Hall. Assuming, of course, the Planning Commission actually has a quorum this time.

UPDATE: The portion of Logan Street in question is a little dead-end spur at the very east end, that sticks into the Kennedy Kenrick lot. From Dekalb St, it looks like a driveway.  No houses actually on it.

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