The purpose of any neighborhood Zoning Committee is to shape
neighborhood input for the ZBA. Therefore, neighborhood activists who
participate in these committees have to learn the shape of zoning law
and bend community concerns to that shape.
It's dull work for most folks. Few people want to master this body of
facts, at once slippery, arcane and unremunerative, just so they can
arrive at perfect votes which none of their neighbors will ever
criticize and everyone will always be happy with.
It is a fact that, just as zoning variances can be wrong, opponents to
these variances can also be wrong. ZBA has a statutory obligation to be
neutral. Neighborhood groups face a similar obligation to provide a
neutral hearing for both sides of a controversy. But reasonable persons
cut them some slack if, as volunteer groups, they lack the resources of
paid staff.
Since we can't pay our Zoning Committee volunteers in money to vet vital
neighborhood changes, how about this? Let's not accuse them of
malfeasance every time they fail to obey every divergent faction in
every particular, unless we have evidence we can take to court.
-- Tony West
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN wrote:
we aren't before the zba yet; your query is premature, not apposite.
we are at the stage where shca's zoning committee is deciding whether
it approves or disapproves rezoning that property for the proposed
hotel. shca's zoning committee is not the zba.
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