Snooze.
While we dealt with 190 items on the agenda last night, very few of them got any attention at all and we were done by 8:00. Here’s the brief recap.
#1 – We honored the Stoughton Road Project for getting a National Award and passed the plan.
#2 – We honored the Goodman’s for their contributions to the City.
#3 – We referred the appeal of the hotel project on 1501 Monroe back to the Plan Commission for final resolution of the language.
We referred a whole bunch of liquor licenses to a special ALRC meeting and a future Council meeting to figure out how to deal with sales of cheap alcohol in the downtown. (I still think it should just be an ordinance instead of a few liquor licenses in a few districts.)
The thing that got my attention at the meeting last night was us bending the rules to be pro-business and nearly abdicating our responsibilities. The item in question was re-platting 1000 Oaks (numbers 41, 189 and 190.) It was at Plan Commission Monday night (I had a board meeting and couldn’t go.) and we recieved a recommendation on our desks about 15 minutes before the meeting started. Apparently, the plat approved 2 years ago expires in 3 days. The plat we re-approved was all the same except the Inclusionary Zoning Plan. Originally, they had to do 46 affordable units. Now, they are pushing for a waiver and to do no affordable housing. (Even though you couldn’t tell that from the materials we recieved. In fact, their application doesn’t even request a waiver – so the Council members wouldn’t know that unless they had talked to the developer or staff. I think the staff said it at the Plan Commission as well, but I wasn’t there.) At issue is if they get a density bonus or not and therefore if they are recieving enough offsets to do the Inclusionary Zoning units. It’s a real issue that should be resolved and I think there is disagreement between staff and the developer. Instead of resolving the issue, the Plan Commission staff added a condition to the approval as follows:
That the Plan Commission approve a final inclusionary dwelling unit plan and gap analysis for the 1000 Oaks subdivision and that all conditions related thereto be satisfied per the Community Development Block Grant and Planning Division approval prior to final approval for recording of the first final plat.
I bet half the people on the council don’t even know what that means. Anyways, I understand that Monday night the Plan Commission didn’t really discuss the inclusionary zoning issue (the really couldn’t because there was no staff report), even tho it was essentially the only issue with the plat. Here’s the problem. The ordinance says:
The Inclusionary Dwelling Unit Plan shall be in addition to any other plan or agreement submitted as a requirement by this or any other ordinance and shall be reviewed and approved as part of the applicable land use approval process.
I think we’ve been sloppy about this in the past, but this was GLARING. It was the only issue in the approval. By all rights, we should not have approved this plat last night. We can’t make the land use decision without the Inclusionary Zoning Plan. And if they are going for a waiver of the units, changes to the plat should be part of the negotiations. Apparently, staff says will take up to two months to figure it out the gap analysis and waiver (WHY?!). If it was submitted with the application, which can’t move forward until it is complete, staff has already had it for 6 weeks.
Anyways, to be pro-business and give the developers what they wanted, we modified the language to have the Inclusionary Zoning Plan come back to the Council as well. Consider the rules, bent, if not broken. But hey – we did it to be pro-business! Tho, I’m not sure any of the alders knew what even happened, but they all voted for the amendment.
I understand that many alders, the Mayor, some of his staff, Rosemary Lee and others went out to Brochach after the meeting, but wrapped it up by 10:00. I couldn’t go out an play, I had to go back to work.
