What a sorry scene: a roomful of irritated citizens, councilmembers
trying unsuccessfully to hide under their chairs, a developer with an
inside track prepared to ace out the public's interest by threatening
litigation, two Park Board Commissioners complaining about being left
out in the cold by city planners.
It's so cumbersome having to make this point again, but the Planning
Department has done a lousy job of setting this thing up for decision.
Twenty organizations feed into the Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood
Coalition that produced the AIA award-winning 1995 Conceptual River
Corridor Plan. The post-hoc Citizen Advisory Committee set up by the
city in response to this major coalition initiative is severely
criticized in MCNC's August 2001 publication for having excluded MCNC
itself, for dropping inclusionary language, for excluding provision for
resident participation in this "citizen" participation organization, for
setting up a "group within the group" that effectively marginalizes most
participants in the CAC, for showering the CAC with "confusing concepts
and disjointed processes", in short for inept and unresponsive planning
practice out front while keeping the Park Board in the dark about the
Riverview parcel and going ahead with a surprise deal with a developer
that flies in the face of the widely supported public desire for a
seven-acre park.
>From list member Candy Sartell's post: "The large turnout in strong
support of preserving the site as open space and park was well
represented by residents, industry/business, environmental groups and
recreational interests. How often can we expect that level of consensus
between such diverse groups on like developments? So many sound
arguments were made for preserving this space as park."
>From CM-elect Zimmermann's post: "The Park Board does want to purchase.
The Park Board has a way of coming up with money--that is not the
problem at all. We have the money for this situation under control.
The problem is that there is no process in place to put any of the land
in the Upper River Master Plan district into the hands of the Park Board
or any public agency. Something stinks here. I am told that Mr.
Baylor sat on the Planning Commission at the time he obtained the
purchase rights for the Riverview Supper Club. Is this, what in the
stock market, is called "insider trading"? Can anyone verify that?"
CM-elect Gary Schiff sings Planning Director Chuck Ballentine's praises
for LRT planning and the expedited removal of the burned-out Burger King
on Lake St., admiring the Planning Director's attention to these little
"quality of life" details as well as facilitating the larger area
planning. But that same Planning Director is getting roasted - and
rightly so - for giving away the store along the Mississipi. Given the
howls of protest North and Northeast, one must wonder who's waiting in
the development wings South and Southeast.
Vanishing a burned-out building is business as usual. I wonder where CM
Niland was when Gary was asking Chuck to intervene. Shucks, maybe Chuck
talked to Jim or vice versa and that's what really cut the red tape on
this demolition. My point is that the removal of a noxious building,
however helpful, doesn't restore my faith in the ancien regime in city
hall.
Transparency in the planning process is what's missing and I'm not
reassured when a new council member so easily sells his bowl of porridge
re Planning Director Chuck Ballentine. Let's hope the mayor-elect will
be less impulsive and oh, yes - while I'm making rude noises - let's
hope the erstwhile council president-to-be gets a grip too. It's just
not good government to let the staff let the developers do their thing
while the good citizens wail and gnash their teeth.
Fred Markus Horn Terrace Ward Ten
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