April 30, 2013

IF YOU COME TO NOTHING ELSE THIS YEAR, PLEASE COME TO THIS:

Downtown Public Forum on Heights, Densities
Date: MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Time: 6:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.
Place: CIVIC AUDITORIUM EAST WING

We recently learned through a public records request that the City and its consultants have excluded residents as "stakeholders" in their planning for the downtown area. Instead, critical decisions about proposed height, density, and massing have been shaped by business interests and developers working hand in glove with the City.

This critical downtown forum, demanded by residents, is our chance to weigh in for the FIRST TIME on appropriate heights and densities for downtown, and whether they should be reduced, not increased in any draft Downtown Specific Plan that is proposed.

Under existing zoning, downtown was largely limited to 3 to 4 stories, unless residential units were involved. Then, the City could allow up to 84 feet or 8 stories.

This created a downtown housing boom. Our downtown now includes about 3,000 new market rate apartments and 5,000 new residents, significantly adding to downtown congestion and parking shortages.

Many of us believe that it's time to put brakes on overdeveloping downtown, rather than relentlessly continue to build more and even higher and denser office, retail and residential projects, like condo/hotel towers of over 20 stories on parcels identified as "opportunity sites." We need to understand whether existing zoning would overdevelop downtown because many downtown properties are less than the maximum allowed.

We strongly disagree with the proposal that large projects as high as 84 feet should be the norm now for much of downtown, including office space, without a Development Agreement or public involvement except at the Planning Commission or Council.

We also think it's a fundamental failure of planning to allow developers of "opportunity sites" to set their own height and massing standards, rather than have maximums specified in the Downtown Specific Plan. Allowing developers to set their own standards is a developer's dream… and a nightmare for residents.

If you agree, please join us and make your voice heard. To win a fight, you have to be IN the fight. We cannot do it without you.

Note: The City has now changed the time to 6 p.m. for a 3-hour public forum (question and answer session - not the usual breakaway tables format). Residents ASKED for this!!

Date: MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Time: 6:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.
Place: CIVIC AUDITORIUM EAST WING

Thanks,
Diana, Victor, Sherrill, and Jeff