INC NEWS - perhaps this issue is a different one...

[Melissa Rooney]

Well said, Randy. Over the years, there have been
numerous such cases down here in Rural/Suburban South
Durham, where the PC overwhelmingly voted against and
the governing bodies approved anyway...to the point
that members of my neighborhood listserv quite
literally couldn't believe the facts that I
presented....they said, 'what do we have a Planning
commission for, if we citizens then have to truck up
to City Hall in order to hope to be heard...and even
then it's just a hope.'

It's often argued that the gov't can't legally vote
against a development for one reason or another.
That's when I say, 'change the local ordinances to
reflect real citizens' concerns.'

Melissa

--- RW Pickle <randy at 27beverly.com> wrote:

> Reading in todays Herald Sun, I saw where City
> Council will be voting
> tonight on a new development in the Hillandale Road
> area. In it, the
> article stated that the Planning Commission (that's
> the citizen folks we
> keep talking about in these development equasions in
> wanting a NA or
> something else to get our voices heard) had voted
> 10-1 in favor of
> REJECTING the development proposal. But the article
> went on to say that
> City Council would probably approve it...
> 
> Well, it seems to me that our elected officials
> really are the ones who
> are at fault here if they do not listen to those in
> our community who are
> charged with dealing with development issues as the
> Planning Commission
> is. And as it is with every decision made it seems,
> regardless of what is
> suggested, Council always has the last say and can
> vote it either way
> regardless of the recommendations of the citizens
> who work tirelessly to
> make those recommendations. I can't see how having a
> NA (or what ever they
> would be called) could trump what ends up being the
> ultimate decision that
> Council, and Council only, has the power to make. If
> they don't want to
> listen to the Planning Commission, to whom do you
> think they'll listen?
> It's not like a 10-1 vote by them was a decision
> that one could read any
> other way but to reject the plan. It's not like a
> 6-5 vote where maybe
> some further study would be necessary.
> 
> It spits in the face of every citizen, when, after
> spending countless
> hours volunteering our time (this is the collective
> time spent by all
> citizens that sit on committees, commissions, and
> authorities in our
> community), making recommendations to do this or
> that, to have all of that
> time wasted when decisions are made that contradict
> those citizens
> efforts. Maybe if we'd all quit doing all of this
> volunteering for a
> awhile, we could send a message that someone needs
> to hear us! Otherwise
> it just seems as if we're all wasting our time on
> deaf ears...
> 
> RWP
> 27 Beverly
> 
> 
> 
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