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

[Pat Carstensen]

The proposed development on Hillandale Road points up a particularly pernicious bit ot the development rules.  The proposed apartment complex puts cars onto neighborhood streets (which already have LONG waits to get out of the area at some times of the day) but doesn't need to do a study because they sized their development to generate 0.35 fewer cars than the cut-off for doing a study and possibly doing something to mitigate the effects.

With the earthquake in China, the cost of construction materials is going to go up even faster than it has been, so we simply can't affort to keep getting stiffed by these guys.

Regards, pat
----------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 13:32:34 -0400
> From: randy at 27beverly.com
> To: mwshiflett at hotmail.com
> CC: inc-list at durhaminc.org
> Subject: INC NEWS - perhaps this issue is a different one...
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> INC-list mailing list
> INC-list at rtpnet.org
> http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/listinfo/inc-list
_________________________________________________________________
E-mail for the greater good. Join the i’m Initiative from Microsoft.
http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Join/Default.aspx?source=EML_WL_ GreaterGood