David has brought up an area of concern I have experienced for many years with respect to Zoning and Planning issues and community input. This gets a little long but is informative so bear with me.
MCDA uses the Citizen Participation program to gather community input on issues that affect MCDA decisions. They issue an annual RFP to select neighborhood groups that agree to inform neighborhood stakeholders and gather information about opinion surrounding MCDA issues in a specific geographic area (neighborhoods). Selection in this RFP produces the coveted "Citizen Participation" recognition and contract. While neighborhood associations get paid very little through this contract to do this work, the group that receives the citizen participation contract with MCDA in a neighborhood is held accountable to their by-laws and the terms of the contract with MCDA. The group that is selected for MCDA Citizen Participation ALSO gets the contract to conduct planning and implementation activities on behalf of the NRP. In a few neighborhoods there is no MCDA citizen participation group. In that case, the NRP contracts with the group the neighborhood voted to represent them for NRP. NRP uses the "Participation Agreement" as the guiding document to determine what neighborhood process should be concerning NRP issues. Neighborhoods are held accountable to this agreement. Currently, there is NO defined process for neighborhood associations to follow regarding gathering input on zoning and planning issues in any given neighborhood. Neighborhood Associations are not paid for this work and there is no policy on what must happen. While Z&P may have a policy regarding property owner notice, I am not aware of any policy they have regarding neighborhood input. So...by and large neighborhood associations are doing this work pro bono. Unfortunately, Z&P issues are often the most contentious issues a neighborhood confronts and often times require a tremendous amount of work by neighborhood volunteers or staff. Meetings, votes, motions, resolutions and the like regarding these issues are only recommendations, they are not binding. The information regarding how a neighborhood feels regarding any specific Z&P issue may simply help guide the planning commission, and the council members as they make their decisions regarding any issue. They are more than free to ignore the recommendation from the neighborhood and have in many cases done so. (i.e. Lydia House) I have always thought that the Citizen Participation process should expand beyond the walls of MCDA or NRP and be a unified process the city used to gather citizen input on matters pertaining to all the city departments. Until then your neighborhood association is just being nice to organize around Z&P issues. They are under no obligation to do so. In fact, I had a neighborhood association I work with vote to stop hosting public meetings regarding Z&P issues because it took too much time and they were too contentious. Barb Lickness Whittier ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! http://mail.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
