For those of you have been unable to attend a City Council meeting in the last year, let me tell you what you missed.
The City Clerk will announce the name of a person who has turned in a card to address the City Council.
This person will say “Good evening Mr. Mayor and Councilmen. I am a resident of (insert name of neighborhood; like Sunkist Park, Rancho Higuera, West Washington). I am here to address you this evening concerning (insert a project name — Entrada, Champion, Rethink).
They Tread the Same Path
“This is a project that is being proposed in my neighborhood. I believe that it (a. is too tall, (b. will cause too much traffic, (c. is out of character with the neighborhood, (d. all of the above.
“The developer (did not meet with the neighbors, completely ignored the concerns of the neighbors). The Environmental Impact Report was (flawed, did not address all areas, is insufficient).
“We are here tonight to ask you to overturn the Planning Commission’s approval of this project. Thank you.”
By inserting different entries in the different sentences, you can recreate the public input from any City Council meeting last year.
In fact, you can use the same template to create the inputs at a future meeting.
Attention, Lafayette Neighbors
By inserting Lafayette Avenue, 4043 Irving Project, d. all of the above, ignored the concerns of the neighbors; you can create the input for a Council meeting that will be occurring in the next couple of months.
Yes, the city is again proposing a large development adjacent to a residential neighborhood. This time it is a four-story project with 26 condos, 3 commercial offices and 68 parking spaces. It is being proposed in an area between Lafayette and Irving, which is currently a parking lot. It has passed the Planning Commission but the approval has been appealed to the City Council.
And why are you able to recreate City Council meetings using this template?
You can do it because of the city’s development assault in a variety of neighborhoods. And in the past these neighborhoods haven’t talked to each other.
Well, this is all changing.
Time to Unite
The residents of different neighborhoods are now talking, and they will be supporting each other.
You will see people from Sunkist Park at meetings supporting people from Rancho Higuera. You will see people from Gateway at meetings supporting people from Irving. It is no longer a developer against a neighborhood. It will be a developer against all neighborhoods.
At a recent Council meeting, Councilman (Chris) Armenta stated that it was his goal to have all Council meetings end by 11 p.m. To meet this goal, he will need to insure that future proposed developments are reasonable.
If not, the newly united neighborhoods have the ability to make any meeting discussing unreasonable development Entrada-like.
Tom Supple may be contacted at tomjsup@ca.rr.com
