Tomorrow night Council debates changing the zoning of Golden Avenue to single-family. We thought we’d look through the Planning Commission minutes, which can be found here, to see why this change is bring proposed; much like lower taxes, less development in a neighborhood is something that people rarely call for without having judiciously considered all the implications.
And Golden Avenue residents are nothing if not judicious. Declares one, “the student housing areas were like a war zone with illegal drinking and a wide variety of activities.” A wide variety of activities? We can’t have that on Golden Avenue, where only five activities are on the approved list (a sixth, Parcheesi, will be considered at the next neighborhood association meeting.) Well, at least he didn’t compare student neighborhoods to parking garages!
Another “wondered who would have a greater sense of participation in the community, questioning if it would be a renter, an absentee landlord, or families who lived here, people who walked throughout the neighborhood, people who cared about each other. He thought the Planning Commission should take that into consideration.” Indeed, families do not rent their homes, and single people do not care about their neighbors. Not enough local governments take these facts into consideration when setting public policy.
Finally, “Edward Vielmetti…stated that this neighborhood was characterized by streets that were blocked off in the summer for parties and by people knowing their neighbors…he welcomed the R1D zoning, which was appropriate for the density and character of the neighborhood.” Kind of disappointing.
It’s encouraging that not every non-renter resident of the neighborhood is taking the NIMBY line, though. Says one:
If his property and others in the neighborhood were already zoned R1D, he said, he would not be here. He said he moved into a large three-bedroom apartment house and came to love the diversity and character of the neighborhood, which was why he purchased his home here. He stated that the proposed rezoning would undermine the type of community he would like to see in his neighborhood.
Every member of the Planning Commission except for Ron Emaus voted for the rezoning, so we can’t imagine that it will have a hard time in Council. Almost all of the speakers speaking out against the proposal were landlords; for some reason, no students spoke at the December 18th meeting.