Sunday, August 06, 2006

School Ave. Proposal Faces Serious Snag

On Aug 2 Mike Connolly, of the City Attorney’s Office, met with Billy Robinson (City Clerk), Chris Gladdue (Clerk’s Office), Peter Schneider (Deputy City Manager), Jane Robinson (Director of Planning), Mike Taylor (Deputy Director of Planning) , Doug James (Senior Planner)and David Smith (Senior Planner) to determine the status of the School Avenue proposal for a land use change to Downtown Mixed Use.

The reason for the meeting was the developer (Ron Burks) had not filed the required application papers for public notification and scheduling of the required public hearings in time to meet the required Sept 25 date for the adoption hearing.

From Attorney Connolly’s memo describing this meeting:

The unanimous opinion of the City’s professional staff was that the City’s Zoning Code does not provide any vehicle by which the rezone application can be brought to a first reading by September 25, 2006. Understandably it is the recommendation of the City’s professional staff that the City Commission must follow the Zoning Code procedures currently in place for review and approval of rezone and site plan applications.

Based on the foregoing, it is the conclusion of the City’s professional staff that staff must recommend to the City Commission a denial of Application 05-PA-03 [School Ave proposal]...

The failure of the applicant to meet the conditions set forth in the transmittal Resolution can be asserted by any affected party as a basis for legal challenge to the Plan Amendment.


It is apparent that for the proposal to continue forward in the current adoption schedule would be a violation of City Code. A violation of this would surely bring a suit by one or more affected parties.

This likely means that any proposal for land use change of this property would have to be in the 2007 cycle.

At this point it is not known why the developer missed the required filing dates. It has been noted by the Alta Vista Neighborhood Association that filing dates for this proposal were missed two times previously, yet the city planning staff allowed the process to move forward.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The (online) School Avenue Charrette Survey has been crafted into an online form to make it easier for folks to participate.

You will find the form at: http://www.rexn.com/charrettesurveypage.htm

and will be able to RANK the following items FAGA identified from MOST IMPORTANT (1) through LEAST IMPORTANT (13).

a) Buffer with neighborhood (Transition)
b) Cut through traffic (Traffic)

c) Façade and roof articulation (Architecture)

d) Higher density north/interior (Density)

e) Hotel-boutique (Uses)

f) Mixed use (Uses)

g) No wall effect (Architecture)

h) Pedestrian oriented (Traffic)

i) Pedestrian scale at edges (Transition)

j) Retail on School Avenue (Uses)

k) Traffic calming (Traffic)

l) Variety of residential (Uses)

m) Wide sidewalks (Transition)

http://www.rexn.com/SchoolAvenuecharrette.htm

Results will be collected into an Excel Spreadsheet and RAW results and Graphs will be posted in advance of the next Planning Board Session on School Avenue Project.