And even more meetings.

As mentioned in the last couple of posts, there are several items of interest to our neighborhood association coming up. There is the first “Infill” educational workshop tomorrow night, and Councilman Skala’s Town Hall on Thursday. It does also look like the MoDOT rezoning issue will go before the P&Z Commission on Feb. 18 (more on that, later). And I just got a notice about the following meeting:

CONTACT: Thaddeus Yonke, AICP
Boone County
Senior Planner
(573) 886-4330
or
Patrick Zenner
City of Columbia
Development Services Manager
(573) 874-7246

Public input sought for ‘East Columbia Area Plan’

(COLUMBIA, MO) – The city of Columbia and Boone County planning and zoning commissions will host the second in a series of public information meetings regarding the East Columbia Area Plan (ECAP) Feb. 23 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Columbia Benevolent Organization’s meeting hall located inside the Elk’s Lodge, 4747 Elk Park Drive East (east of Cedar Grove Elementary School off State Route WW). The purpose is to present draft findings related to the infrastructure and environmental conditions of the study area as well as obtain community feedback on desired goals and objectives intended to guide growth on the lands generally bounded by I-70, US 63, New Haven Road and Rangeline Road in eastern Boone County.

Preparing plans ahead of development and engaging the public is the purpose of this joint effort. The planning commissions invite all affected or interested residents to participate. The program schedule is as follows:
5:30 – 5:45 p.m., Open Q&A
5:45- 7 p.m., Presentation
7 – 7:30 p.m., Q&A

Participants in this second informational meeting will be asked to comment on draft findings related to the study area’s
infrastructure and environmental conditions. These comments will assist the joint commissions in further developing the plan in a manner that best captures the values or ideas considered most important by area residents. Future meetings will be held to provide residents the opportunity to see the progression of the planning process. Prior to final plan adoption by City Council and the County Commission, a public hearing will be held offering residents yet another opportunity to comment on the plan.

Draft copies of the Infrastructure and Environment chapters will be available for advance public review after Feb. 16 online at
www.gocolumbiamo.com/Planning/EastColumbiaAreaPlan_ECAP.php or at the city or county planning department offices.

I will be planning on attending all of these meetings, and will report back here on any relevant information, but I would encourage others from the CCENA to attend as well.

Jim Downey

Meetings, meetings, meetings.

I have been contacted by Paul Love, who is a candidate for mayor and would be happy to meet with our neighborhood association to answer questions and discuss issues if we wanted to do so. As I noted in a previous post about Sid Sullivan, I am willing to arrange a meeting if there is interest in the neighborhood.

I have also been contacted by Bill Cantin of the City’s new Office of Neighborhood Services. The relevant bit:

I would like to take this opportunity to announce the formation of the City’s new Office of Neighborhood Services, created as part of the City’s 2010 fiscal year budget to bring staff and resources together in one place to better address code enforcement issues, strengthen neighborhoods and team those efforts with volunteers. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for Columbia’s residents through fairly and swiftly enforcing city codes related to residential life and build a sense of community by offering valuable volunteer opportunities, providing resources for neighborhood leaders to solve issues independently and managing donations to support our community. Much more information can be found on our website at http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Neighborhoods/. We would also encourage you to visit our website and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

We are very interested in coming to any meetings your association may have in order to discuss in further detail our new office. Feel free to contact our office if you are interested and we will get those meeting times on our calendar. In preparation for this, we have prepared a brief survey to assess what you might like to see out of our new office, and to see what sort of issues and projects we can help you with. Please click on the following link to complete this survey if you are interested:
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2ovt5wag4psp0tx/start.

And last, but not least, here is some information from Karl Skala concerning another “Safety Summit” he’s scheduled for Feb. 11th which may be of interest:

Winter Quarter Ward 3 Neighborhood Safety Summit & Town Hall Meeting

WHEN: Thursday, February 11th at 6:30 till 8:30 p.m. or questions/comments remain!
WHERE: Blue Ridge Elementary School Cafeteria, 3700 Woodland Dr.

Come meet our 3rd Ward Councilman, Karl Skala and several city leaders including Police Chief Ken Burton and a cadre of command staff and patrol officers and Office of Neighborhood Services Director, Leigh Britt.

A progress report on neighborhood crime since our September meeting will be center stage! Come find out how we can support a Neighborhood Watch Program and work together to reduce CRIME in North-East Columbia. Find out what you can do to help city officials combat CRIME in your neighborhood. This is your opportunity to participate – please come and bring your neighbors!

More info: Karl Skala @ 474-2195 or Ward3@GoColumbiaMo.com

Please let me know if you are interested in any of these and need more information.

Jim Downey

Infill?

Got a note from the City about this upcoming workshop:

Workshop #1: Tuesday, February 9, 2010- 7:00 PM – Walton Building – 300 South Providence

Topic – What is infill?

* Introduction to series topics
* Visual Preference Survey
* Community Consensus
o Defining terms and types for Columbia

This is the first in a series of workshops designed to help citizens better understand some of the issues involved in Planning and Zoning decisions about “infill development”. I am planning on attending, and would encourage anyone else interested in the matter to consider it as well.

More information here on the City’s website.

Jim Downey

So, about last night, Part IV.

Quick follow-up to this post: the Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously voted to ‘table’ consideration of the case to their February 18th meeting, to allow all parties involved time to evaluate the new traffic study. When that study is available, and the City Staff’s evaluation and recommendation is made, I shall post a link here on the blog. In the meantime, if you have opinions on the matter, please feel free to comment here or send me a private email.

Jim Downey

Meet Sid Sullivan?

I’ve been contacted by a representative for mayoral candidate Sid Sullivan, asking whether there is interest in having Mr. Sullivan make a presentation on any of the following topics:

• a)  A community plan for development around a 4-square mile area in northwest Columbia for a neighborhood – this is a presentation in response to Columbia’s growth process lacking a focus on building communities and neighborhoods;
• b)  If the neighborhood is interested, he could address the current issue of proper billing for city services, e.g., over and under-billing of sewer usage;
• c) Another area would be public safety, e.g., some issues of crime, police an crime prevention including use of TASER’s by police;

Each discussion would run approximately 20 minutes, and Mr. Sullivan would take questions. If you are interested in attending such a meeting, or hosting one at your home, please leave a comment or send me an email in the next week or so. If there is sufficient interest, I will make the necessary arrangements (this does not constitute any kind of endorsement or support for the candidate – I will do the same for any candidate who contacts me).

Jim Downey

So, about last night, Part III.

Well, this is interesting. As noted in Part II of our saga, the application for rezoning the 18+ acres of land where the MoDOT maintenance facility used to be on Conley Road brought up the question of the extension of Conley Road and the impact that would have on the Country Club golf course. In the formal application submitted, TKG Conley Road Investments LLC claims that this extension is not necessary, and have commissioned a traffic study to support this claim, since the previous traffic studies, the TDD applicable to the area, and the City’s own planning documents previously have all indicated that the extension was necessary and desirable. Since the revised traffic study is not yet complete, the Planning & Zoning city staff has recommended that either the P & Z Commission reject the application, or that the application be postponed to a later meeting. Here is the relevant passage:

STAFF RECOMMENDATION

Staff Recommends denial of the application as submitted, in light of the significant pieces of information that remain unresolved. Staff finds the proposed C-P zoning appropriate for the site; however, the potential impact of such a land use change may overwhelm the adjacent infrastructure, specifically roads. Without review of the pending traffic study, resolution of the TDD issues, and further address of buffering concerns, staff does not support this proposal.

ALTERNATIVELY, staff would recommend a “tabling” of this project to the February 18, 2010 meeting. This time frame would provide opportunity for all pertinent parties to adequately review the requested traffic study and address other issues of concern. Tabling to the February 18, 2010, Commission meeting is recommended assuming the traffic study is provided to staff for review no later than January 10.

You can download the entire document here: http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Planning/Commissions/PZ/documents/09_124TKGConleyRds.pdf

I am going to attend the P & Z Commission meeting on this coming Thursday, January 7th, to insure that we have representation there, but I do not think that it is necessary for other members of the neighborhood association to attend, as I expect that the P & Z Commission will follow the Staff recommendation and table the case to February (at the earliest).

If you have thoughts on this matter, please feel free to post a comment or email me directly: jim@afineline.org

Jim Downey

Re-doing the “Brady” house

I’m sure a lot of you have been wondering what the plans are for the Ray Brady house, at the corner of Country Club Drive and Fairway.  For a while now they have been demolishing bits and pieces of it, but leaving the bulk.  On this morning’s walk, I stopped to chat with the guys who were pulling out old materials from the interior.  There is a rumor that it is being demolished, but that is only partly true.

It seems that the original house had several problems that would have made it hard to bring up to date, particularly things like no insulation.  The lot is a very tight corner lot, so they can’t go much bigger than the existing house, though (as previously noted) the new owners got permission to expand a bit to the north.

What I was told today is that, indeed, they will be taking down the above-ground part, stopping at the existing main subfloor.  The new house will then take shape on the existing foundation and basement, with some extensions.  They have been going slowly until now because there were things in the basement that they wanted to protect from the weather.  Apparently they have that resolved now, and I’m told they will have the main part down by year’s end and should have the new house framed up by the end of January.  It will share some characteristics with the existing house, besides the foundation, like lots of windows facing the golf course.

We’ll post more if and when we get more information.

So, about last night, Part II.

As noted last week, there was another rezoning “information meeting” held last night at the City offices concerning the 18 acre parcel of land where the MoDOT maintenance facility used to be on Conley Road. The owners, TKG Conley Road Investments LLC, have filed for rezoning of the parcel to C – P (‘planned business’). A summation of the zoning classifications can be found on the City’s website here, and the full ordinance pertaining to C – P zoning here.

To be honest, there wasn’t much new information from what we heard at the previous meeting, though of course the dates for a hearing before the P&Z Commission, et cetera have changed. The new schedule we are currently looking at would be as follows: Staff report published on January 4th (may be available online as early as December 31); Hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission on January 7th; First Reading at the City Council meeting on January 19th (Tuesday because of the MLK holiday on the 18th); Subsequent readings at the two City Council meetings in February.

City staff in attendance at the meeting indicated that the meeting was being held to provide information and garner feedback from concerned parties about the proposed rezoning, and that the applicant had a right to having their specific zoning request addressed in the manner established by City ordinance. Attendees at the meeting (myself included) indicated that while the specific rezoning issue was clearly defined, that it needed to be addressed in the larger context of planned development. Again, as at the previous meeting, the representative from TKG Conley Road Investments LLC said that currently they have no plans to seek having Conley Road extended further to the north, into what is property owned by the Country Club, and across Hinkson Creek in order to tie into the east end of Business Loop 70 and no power to force a sale through condemnation or other means – that would have to come from either the City or the State. City staff indicated that the current CATSO (Columbia Area Transportation Study Organization) plan indicates that this should be done at some point in the future. You can draw your own conclusions.

So, it looks like the application for rezoning the parcel to C – P will be before the Planning and Zoning Commission on January 7th, and there will be a public hearing on the matter then. (See this information if you are interested in speaking at that hearing.)

It will then go before the City Council with a recommendation from P&Z. The City Council will hear the application, and determine when there will be public discussion of the matter. If the rezoning is approved, it will then be subject to another formal review process later with the Planning & Zoning Commission, when an actual development plan is filed – the full details are in the governing ordinance.

I am waiting to see the final Staff recommendation, and what is included in the supporting documentation from the applicant, before I form my own opinion on the rezoning request. Either way, I am planning on attending the P & Z Commission meeting on January 7th. I will be *unable* to attend the City Council meeting on the 19th, as I will be out of town. I will note again that my biggest concern is in regards to the larger development issue, and that this request for rezoning should be seen in that context, as that has a much greater potential impact on our neighborhood. I would welcome feedback from the neighborhood association membership on this matter, and whether we wish to convene a meeting sometime in the next several weeks to discuss the matter.

Jim Downey