Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting, February 12, 2009
What a night we have had!!!
There must have been over 100 people from Cherry Blossom at the Court House tonight to speak against the rezoning of the Icon Property.
The P & Z staff (including Mike Sapp and Brian Shorkey (a U of M grad who spent some time in Howell, MI) were recommending the zone change to the Planning Commission. The Icon people had an attorney from Wyannt. Terrant and Combs (no relation), law firm in Louisville, to plead the rezoning.
There were not enough chairs for the crowd that came to testify against the rezoning. Some spoke, some did not. But our strength was in the numbers. It was such a great night, because it was just as if we had planned the whole thing because everyone spoke about a different subject: traffic, safety, vandalism, depreciation of property values, schools, 2010 Comprehensive Plan, Traffic Study, etc. etc.
The meeting lasted for over three hours of testimony, but when the vote came, we had all five of the members who were in attendance (two were absent) vote against the rezoning.
One of the best comments of the night was from John McNeil who said we didn’t want to help Icon with a “bailout” because they made a bad investment in property. He is an attorney, and he said some great things, but that was the one that almost had the crowd on its feet.
After the meeting we (Wehrs, Bees, Fields, Elliotts, Julie and Mike and us) went across the street to Galvin’s to celebrate our victory. Mike Elliott said it best: “Power of the People.”
This is the second zoning issue we have won in the past three weeks!!! What a wonderful community effort it was. We can now hope that the land will be used for the original intention: Upscale Retail, for which it was zoned in the year 2000!!!
What a night we have had!!!
There must have been over 100 people from Cherry Blossom at the Court House tonight to speak against the rezoning of the Icon Property.
The P & Z staff (including Mike Sapp and Brian Shorkey (a U of M grad who spent some time in Howell, MI) were recommending the zone change to the Planning Commission. The Icon people had an attorney from Wyannt. Terrant and Combs (no relation), law firm in Louisville, to plead the rezoning.
There were not enough chairs for the crowd that came to testify against the rezoning. Some spoke, some did not. But our strength was in the numbers. It was such a great night, because it was just as if we had planned the whole thing because everyone spoke about a different subject: traffic, safety, vandalism, depreciation of property values, schools, 2010 Comprehensive Plan, Traffic Study, etc. etc.
The meeting lasted for over three hours of testimony, but when the vote came, we had all five of the members who were in attendance (two were absent) vote against the rezoning.
One of the best comments of the night was from John McNeil who said we didn’t want to help Icon with a “bailout” because they made a bad investment in property. He is an attorney, and he said some great things, but that was the one that almost had the crowd on its feet.
After the meeting we (Wehrs, Bees, Fields, Elliotts, Julie and Mike and us) went across the street to Galvin’s to celebrate our victory. Mike Elliott said it best: “Power of the People.”
This is the second zoning issue we have won in the past three weeks!!! What a wonderful community effort it was. We can now hope that the land will be used for the original intention: Upscale Retail, for which it was zoned in the year 2000!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment