According to this scanned article from the Tribune (the online version seems to be no longer available), the zoning board voted 4-2 to recommend a zoning change to the city property located at 38th Street North and River Drive.
At last night's City Commission meeting, a few folks spoke against the rezoning and the chair of Neighborhood Council 4 indicated that her council had never received word about the recommendation. In fact, the first time she heard about it was from the July 23 Tribune article. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but it is. Neighborhood Councils are always to be advised when zoning changes are being recommended. In almost all cases, this one being an exception for some reason, the zoning board will ask what the recommendation is from the appropriate Neighborhood Council before they vote.
NC#4 will have this on their August agenda, and based upon input from the public, the City planning department and Brett Doney, they will offer a recommendation at the September 2 public hearing.
If you have questions or concerns, you're invited to contact the chair of NC#4, Sandra Guynn, at siguynn@yahoo.com.
2 comments:
GFGirl; You are right. This is a significant issue.
Why even bother to have a neighborhood council system if the city is not going to use it? Why does the city bother to have NC elections if they are going to circumvent the system like this?
It might be a good idea to rezone this property. However, it should not come up before the city commission until after the local neighborhood council has had their say and has voted on the issue.
Per city code 2.50.050 (A) (7), neighborhood councils are to act as an advisory role to the city on zoning issues. Why has the city decided to circumvent council 4 here?
I now understand that the zoning board has apologized and places the blame for the error as an oversight on their part.
However, both the zoning board and the city commission should enact rules and procedures to ensure that they never hear zoning requests until after the local neighborhood council in the area has had the opportunity to hear the issue.
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