8 posts tagged “zoning”
Mother may I break the rules – just a little - just this once – please?
People seem to have a difficult time figuring out my politics when, in my mind at least, it is very simple and clear.
There are Rules. Live by those Rules.
That’s it. Call it playground logic if you will.
Armed with that little insight you can see why this little piece of propaganda from the Savannah Morning News had me boiling:
“SAVANNAH CITY Council should either approve a rezoning at White Bluff and Hampstead, or buy the land from the developer.”
Partly I am mad cause they are wrong – partly because the editorial staff presented a whole page of wrong under a bigas animated banner ad for Enmark- the owner of the land.
This goes back to that whole Enmark thing from last week’s city council meeting.
Enmark is asking for permission to break the zoning law on a piece of land in a neighborhood. The paper would have you believe that is not only okay but their GAWD given right.
City leaders can't preclude property owners from the rightful use of their land indefinitely.
Rightful use? So, according to the paper, City Council has lost the power to enforce zoning laws? When did this happen?
Does this mean I can pursue my lifelong dream of operating a deer processing/taxidermy shop in the heart of Ardsley Park. I can put in the Helicopter landing pad I’ve always wanted?
Oh but no… Enmark is going to enhance the neighborhood by breaking the zoning laws.
“That Enmark is moving to get the rezoning anyway is a testament to its corporate stewardship.
The company has also pledged to build a store with a more residential-looking design, muted colors, and a single low sign on the White Bluff side of the property.”
Okay… see Enmark knew the zoning when they bought the land.
Everyone involved including Enmark says they can build the station they want without breaking the zoning laws but we are supposed to applaud because they want to break the zoning laws?
The paper tries to do a little MPC dance pointing out the “transitional”
nature of the area as an excuse to allow further commercial encroachment into
the neighborhood.
Doesn’t that just push the transitional part into the
residential part?
Where do we stop the transitioning part?
Will there be any houses left?
UPDATE:
This past Thursday’s City Council meeting is up on the web for all to see now.
The file claims it was created on Friday – but was not posted until this morning.
Skip ahead to a about 1:24:00 to see Alderman Clifton Jones peel back the curtain on what’s been going on over at the Metropolitan Planning Commission.
“In meeting with the neighbors I found that the MPC was responsible for encouraging Enmark to move into this area and intrude in that block. In my opinion I find that awful unusual. I did not know they made that type of recommendations but in this particular instance they made a recommendation. The MPC did - the staff I imagine because that is the way it is in this report.”
“…they told me there was a sign posted on the property - “Ben Farmer Realty”. So I checked it out and then we’re talking about a grand conflict of interest because I think Mr. Farmer had something to do with the very motion that got this where it is today.
I found that through his company there was an agent by the name of Carl Francis that actually sold this property to Enmark.
If I am wrong I got the wrong information but if I’m right then this is the information that I’ve been given. Mr. Mayor I’m saying all this because I don’t want to see this property affect a whole lot of other properties in the City of Savannah. If Enmark is able to further encroach into this area then what about the rest of Savannah?”
So the only thing Alderman Jones said that is in dispute is the part about a specific agent from Ben Farmer Realty that “sold this property to Enmark”
Mr. Farmer says that never happened. Okay – but what about the rest of it?
ADDENDUM: I have the direct quotes now posted at: http://stupidsavannah.vox.com/library/post/est%C3%BApido-savannah---monday-november-09-2009-13559-pm.html
A whiff of scandal
I am just going off of what I have read. I don’t like to do that because much of what I read is wrong. In this instance I have no choice as the City of Savannah is not following its policy of re-broadcasting and posting the regularly scheduled City Council meetings to the web within days of the original broadcast.
I don’t want to belabor that sudden change in public information policy because I don’t want to get distracted by minutia but I missed the meeting and haven’t been able to see it yet and am not as well armed with the facts as I would like to be going into this. That being said I sally forth.
Go Clifton – Go Clifton It’s Your Birthday! We gon' party like it's your birthday. We gon' sip on Bacardi like it's your birthday.
Clifton Jones called THE MAN out -- right up in the middle of City Council!!! He put it right out on Front Street for everybody to see (unless they were counting on seeing it on the rebroadcast or the web).
“As council members debated the rezoning, Alderman Clifton Jones repeated and expanded on an allegation from one of the residents.
He stated that Ben Farmer, a local real estate agent and member of the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, had an agent who had sold the property to Enmark.”
This is the Boring Background Part: Enmark says it wants to throw up another quality gas station at the corner of Hampstead and White Bluff. They want to take a bite out of the residential property in the neighborhood to do it.
MPC staff and of course the industry-heavy MPC signed off on the plan.
This despite objections from 99.999% of the people in the neighborhood and pleas for patience from the city. It seems the parcels in question are in the Project Derenne study area and if Enmark would just wait they would have a better idea of how the changes in the area might change the landscape and the property they own there.
Thus the request to violate the zoning laws came before
council with great big green checkmarks from both MPC Staff and the MPC but
with a great big red X from City Manager Michael Brown because the whole thing
may become moot if the city takes out the land in question to build a new road for Project Derenne.
Enmark is simply being asked to wait which they seem unwilling to do.
The More Interesting Bits Resume Here: The reason I’ve waited days to report this is because the two emails I got from people in the room suggest that the paper overstated Clifton’s accusations. My sources say he simply pointed out that Ben Farmer had a sign on the lot in question and that an agent of his company had represented the property and that the property next door is owned by Enmark.
“Farmer, reached after the meeting, said the claim was untrue. He once had a listing on the property, but it expired with no sale.
"We had nothing to do with that transaction. If I had I would have disclosed it."
So he DID represent the land at some point but he wasn’t the one who actually did the deal.
Interesting split of the hair there.
I would like to ask Mr. Farmer how many parcels of land either owned by or purchased by Enmark has his company represented and profited from?
My Take –
Metropolitan Planning Commissioner Ben Farmer has a conflict of interest.
That is a broad statement of fact. Let’s drill down a bit.
As a real estate mogul Ben Farmer has a vested interest in making sure parcels of land have as many potential uses as possible so as to more easily sell said parcels. This is in direct conflict with his role on the Metropolitan Planning Commission which is a pseudo regulatory body partially responsible for enforcing zoning limitations on the potential uses of parcels of land.
I have pointed out this conflict in the past. Mr. Farmer is not the only one on the board with such conflicted interests but he is by far the most outspoken and I would argue the most successful in both his business and in voting in favor of variances that allow property owners to violate zoning regulations.
Enmark owns lots and lots of land; Farmer represents lots and lots of land owners. It would be odd if there was no interaction between the two.
Mr. Farmer should never place himself in a position to make any decisions that would profit any of his business associates past or present, directly or indirectly.
As the apostle pointed out to the good people of Thessaloniki so long ago – “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” In other words if it even looks like you might have a conflict of interest you should probably step away.
Ben Farmer needs to step away and somebody needs to buy Clifton Jones a drink for having the brass eggs to point it out.
Question: When someone’s property rights and entrepreneurial desires will obviously lead to a higher tax burden for the city, should those rights and desires be curtailed?
Case in point; Virginia Rahn, a cute little blond in Lisa Loeb glasses, wants to open a package store on River Street down near Spanky’s.
City Council said yes even though the store is guaranteed to create open container violations which will require increased policing along River Street as well as increased problems with litter.
Will Ms. Rahn’s city taxes cover the increased police response and other city services? Shouldn’t there be a cost benefit analysis and shouldn’t businesses that use a higher level of services pay for the overage?
In my mind, this is just a bad idea. The last thing we need on River Street, where “to go” cups are plentiful, is a source for those tiny little one shot bottles. The teenager in me is thinking how easy it will be to buy a coke in a “to go” cup and then get an older friend to buy me a shot bottle of Jack from Ms. Rahn.
Shut Up Dean Kicklighter!
Despite Ms. Conn’s article to the contrary, Chatham County Commissioner Dean Kicklighter did not stick to his guns claiming fewer than 10 parking spaces will be enough for 300 customers at the latest Tompkin’s Dynasty Bar.
He did exactly as I suggested a couple of weeks ago and came with a promise of substantially more parking for the proposed Lizard Lounge at Indian and Bay Streets.
For the most part he kept his mouth shut as council discussed the proposed alcohol license for the club this week. Perhaps he will learn that keeping it shut will help him to keep his foot clear of the gaping orifice in the future.
City leaders approved the change with their now standard “we’ll be watching you” warning about keeping a law abiding, albeit drunk, clientele.
One interesting point on the proposal, it turns out the landlord there at the Lizard Lounge was one of the loudest complainants against Club Oz when patrons of that club were parking wherever they could in the area around his property. Now it seems, since he will be renting to a nightclub, he has no problem with the party people parking up his lots.
Okay, I recognize that this is a small thing. I understand that in the great expanse of our vast universe this is a historically small thing but still… it bugged me and I will address it.
“Approved a financial plan to sell or refinance about $78 million in municipal bonds. About $35 million would pay for road improvements around Savannah River Landing and for major water and sewer projects.”
Ms. Conn is writing about the “other action” at City Council this week and as is typical buries the biggest, most expensive and most far reaching news at the very bottom. But that is not what is bugging me.
No, what bugs me in this is the characterization of the newly funded projects as being “around Savannah River Landing”.
First, there is no Savannah River Landing. There is nothing there. There is not likely to be anything there by the time these improvements are finished.
No one is likely to say “oh take that road out by Savannah River Landing” or “I got stuck in traffic at Savannah River Landing” because there is no Savannah River Landing.
City Council is spending our bond money on road improvements along President Street and General McIntosh. The only role Savannah River Landing has in that would be to pay for it with an increase in tax revenue if they ever built anything which seems highly unlikely in the near term.
Ms. Conn seemed far more fascinated with the request for an alcohol license by Mr. Seaborne Tompkins. Actually Mr. Tompkins did not make the request at Council he brought a mouthpiece in the form of Chatham County Commissioner Dean Kicklighter.
Looking at my list of people I want speaking on my behalf here…. Yeah Kicklighter is way down there, after that guy who walks around town with the “abortion is murder ask me how” sign and a poo flinging capuchin monkey.
Kicklighter made a classic mistake when trying to win the good graces of City Council. He kept going on about what the rules would let them get away. In this case, he was convinced that the rules would let them get away with having only 7 parking spaces for a business hoping to attract up to 300 people at a time.
That is not what this council wants to hear.
This council wants to hear about how you plan to provide 10 times the number of spaces required and how you will personally pick up every piece of trash in a 4 block radius and the one hundred and one other ways you will go above and beyond to make sure that your establishment will be a model business, beloved by the neighbors and forgotten by police because hey, nothing ever happens out there.
As much fun as it was to watch Diminutive Dean prance about, it is kind of sad that Mr. Seaborne has sunk his inheritance into a space that doesn’t meet zoning requirements for what he wants to do and is in an area that has caused nothing but trouble for the other bar trying to make a go of it there. It seems to me if he had looked at the rules in advance and done a bit of research into earlier council rulings instead of just trying to figure out what he could get away with, he would be in much better shape right now.
A little something that should make the news but I bet won’t this week in Savannah. (Yes I realize by publishing this I am guaranteeing that some industrious reporter will follow up. Just play along.)
Somebody is messing with West Savannah.
Remember a few years back all the talk and the focus the Mayor put on fixing West Savannah? They rezoned the whole neighborhood to encourage new homes and residential development because of something they called “filtering”.
“The process of "filtering" occurs as a residential neighborhood ages, residents move to the suburbs or other neighborhoods, and often their former homes are used for rental properties. A deteriorating housing stock is often the result of "filtering."”
The attention and the rezoning seemed to work well. Drive down Richard Street and look at the rows of new homes and then of course there is the impending Fellwood development that will bring in hundreds more. With that level of success, why would the powers that be even consider f-ing with the zoning rules out there?
That is exactly what City Council will consider doing on Lathrop Ave this week.
115 E. Lathrop is currently zoned Residential Business which is apparently designed to “…to create an area in which certain types of convenience-shopping-retail sales and service uses can be established and at the same time prevent nuisances or hazards created by vehicular movement, noise or fume generation or high-intensity use detrimental to adjacent residential development.”
They want to change it to a General Business which purports to“…recognize general business areas which are developed commercially but which, because of their proximity to residential areas, require greater attention to the array of uses permitted in order to ensure that the quality of life in the surrounding area is not degraded, while at the same time protecting the vitality of the commercial area.”
There are many differences in "allowed uses" between the two but the primary difference is the attitude toward the neighbors.
Under the current zoning, businesses are restricted in order to lessen their impact on the neighborhood. Under the requested zoning, preserving the vitality of the businesses is the primary concern.
It is a subtle difference but will be important when the property next door decides to go from residential to business and then a couple of doors down the street might want to change and before you know it the West Savannah Revitalization Plans unravels and all the good intentions and actions of the past 10 years are undone.
Just leave it be.
Seriously, can we keep the turnip truck out of Savannah? People keep falling off and getting jobs in the media.
I watched the City Council meeting with great interest yesterday afternoon. It was fun to see Charlie Russo offer up a back handed apology after his attorney told council that all this confusion over Charlie’s restaurant was the fault of unclear ordinance and typographical errors.
It would have been ridiculous except for the fact that I can remember a time not too long ago when it would have worked. I remember a time when an intense lobbying effort by our esteemed County Chairman and pressure from the Irish Mafia would have cowed any elected official into saying yes to whatever Russo wanted.
It is a pity that those reporting on the matter have such short memories.
First of all it was zoning in Mid-City not Midtown, two totally different areas.
Second, the zoning plan was never designed to keep commercial interests out. It was designed to manage where they came in.
The Mid-City Zoning Plan allows for just about any type of low intensity business uses on the main north/south corridors (Bull, Abercorn, Drayton). It stops businesses from locating on the interior blocks of the east/west streets in an effort to foster stable residential properties.
The idea is if you have strong residential areas that will feed and foster the commercial corridors. Such zoning is the foundation on which successful neighborhoods are built.
No one is going to invest in a house if that investment might be ruined by a funeral home opening up next door.
How would you like to pour your life savings into a home and then learn the probation office or a methadone clinic is going to move in right next door? Zoning makes the whole thing more predictable and that encourages investment.
The Russo case was never about sitting down to eat in a restaurant, nor was it about Mr. Russo and his family. It was a very simple case of the rule of law and whether or not this fragile web of zoning we count on to protect our investment in our neighborhoods would stand or fall.
I don’t think I’ve ever had such a difficult time finding out what is happening in my hometown.
A neighbor reminded me to watch the City Council meeting this afternoon because Charlie Russo is going to be on. I actually corrected him that the meetings are on Thursday every other week.
I was wrong.
Normally I would have been right except this time it is on Tuesday apparently because of Yom Kippur.
Now in the past I would have already known this.
Mr. Larson would have done an article or at least a blog about the change in date or one of the TV stations would have had a blurb, but this time, nothing.
Besides finding out if Russo will be allowed to continue to violate zoning regulations the city is also moving forward with, sound the trumpets, their new recycling plan (page 13), which I now learn will include tracking devices in your recycling bin so they will know if you recycle or not.
I wonder if they will ever release the numbers from that so
that I can be proved right in my prediction that a very small percentage of the
population will take part.
My gut says ‘no’. My gastrointestinal system also expresses doubt that the them that calls themselves media in this town will even ask since they all seem to be in the bag, or the bin, in favor of the Recycling Myth.
Maybe I’m just sensitive to this stuff but it seems to me that we used to get quite a bit more City Council coverage in print and on television.
