HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence 0�-c3
Brazos Progressives
P.O. Box 10782 RE ,llvEDa
College Station, TX 77842 $Jp o
chair@brazosprogressives.org
www.brazosprogressives.org
5 December 2005
Planning and Zoning Commission
Attn.: Lisa Lindgren
Staff Assistant
City of College Station
Planning and Development Services
1101 Texas Avenue
College Station, Texas 77840
llindgren@cstx.gov
Dear Friends of the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council,
We would like to register our grave concern over the process that has been used to redraft
the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). We understand that considerations of good
governance from the City staff may not be a normal part of the Planning and Zoning
Commission's responsibilities, but we believe that the errors that have been made are of
such magnitude that they compromise the job you are being asked to do. We recommend
that you reject the proposed UDO because it has been compromised by a clear conflict of
interest and a lack of public oversight and input.
We believe that citizen participation in local government is vital to the overall success of
our community. Development is important, and our city government should make every
attempt to receive input from its citizens regarding this issue. The UDO is intended to
provide guidelines that define developers' responsibilities, and all of our city's citizens
should be invited to participate in the redrafting of these guidelines. Unfortunately, the
Development Services Department invited only developers to help write the guidelines.
No similar effort was made to include other single-interest groups or citizens in this
process. We agree that developers should have a part in the overall dialogue; however,
what actually occurred privileged the developers and excluded others. As a result, the
proposed UDO was drafted with undue influence of a group with a clear conflict of
interest.
These ordinances are hugely important to the overall well-being of our community,
including the way our community is built and the cost of living that we create for
ourselves. Proceeding without an effort to educate and involve citizens at all levels is
undemocratic, irresponsible, and unacceptable.
2
On numerous occasions, we were happy to see that City staff agreed that these issues are
important and that citizen involvement should be addressed; unfortunately, suggested
solutions were never instituted, and citizen input has not been achieved. For example,
during the drafting of these ordinances, many developers were invited to attend weekly
meetings with the City on Thursdays at 11:00 a.m. Staff agreed that while the developers
had a financial interest in being at these meetings that allowed them to take time during
their workday to attend, most citizens do not have the luxury of leaving their jobs during
the day to attend meetings about City business. They agreed that evening meetings
would be a good idea, yet evening meetings were never scheduled.
Our community is economically healthy and growing rapidly. This makes us very
attractive for development. While we are all proud to live in a vibrant community, most
agree that poorly managed development does not contribute to our quality of life and can
have long-term deleterious effects. When considering what sort of development we want,
how fast we want to develop, and how much the City should subsidize development, the
view of the development community that stands to profit financially from these decisions
is likely to be very different than it is for many other citizens. For most of us in College
Station, these issues are evaluated in terms of their impact on quality of life over the long
term rather than short-term profits.
If we truly value quality of life in College Station, we must insist on a more inclusive
approach for the crafting of important ordinances. You have an opportunity to take an
important step in the right direction by voting to reject the proposed UDO. We request
that you take this step to help insure good government for our community.
We look forward to hearing from you regarding our concerns.
Sincerely,
Brazos Progressives Steering Committee
Krista May, Chair(chair(a,brazosprogressives.org)
John Gibbs, Vice Chair
Richard Woodward, Treasurer
Carla Prater, Publicity Committee, Chair
Bridget Bassett, Membership Committee, Chair
Corbet Perkins, Grass Roots Education and Action Team, Chair
Annie Lessem, ForwardFest Committee, Chair
Cecelia Hawkins, Past Chair
Hugh Stearns, Member
cc: College Station City Council