My notes for the APC tomorrow
night . . . even if you can't be there, remember they will read your comments into the record. rogara@tippecanoe.in.gov Ryan O'Gara
In
2009 I drafted the W.Lafayette city council resolution that
called for the
development of a land use plan for the New Chauncey
Neighborhood.
While
the technical work done by the APC staff toward this end is excellent, this
process has been
disappointing.
It
has taken too long. Here in 2013, with the Wang Hall and Muinzer
projects
underway, the plan is less relevant.
It
has valued commercial interests over voter interests. A number
of the
“stakeholders” included in the original steering committee
melted away during
the lengthy process. The membership became lopsided. Contrast
this group to “Centennial’s”
membership.
It
has taken place without the promised mediation. This was crucial
to the
successful conversation undertaken by the neighborhood and the
Purdue Research
Foundation around the Wang Hall project.
Instead,
the APC, with one would assume the blessing of the West
Lafayette City government,
at our second to last meeting, changed the previously touted
rules on reaching
an agreement from achieving consensus to a series of up/down
votes on land use.
The results were predictable.
So,
after having wasted three or four years on this effort, I seem
to have managed to
reduce the R1-U portion of
the New Chauncey neighborhood by 16% and achieved little else. A
compromise?
No; Jay McCann and I simply lost a bunch of votes.
I
took a shot at “special” and got “typical”.
The
development that is now envisioned in the block-by-block plan
will
fundamentally alter a neighborhood already stressed by new and
denser
development, and undermine the announced goal of neighborhood
revitalization and
preservation.
The
planning process should be reopened. Or Barberry Heights, Hills
and Dales, and
Northwestern Heights forewarned.
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