More Bad Development

College Station seems to be again faced with really bad development decisions going forward in what appears to be a flawed process. This is important enough that I am compelled to speak up. Unfortunately, there is a great deal that I do not understand about the nuts and bolts of the process. But what does seem to be rather clear is that on Thursday night our City Council is going to vote to fund a roads project that subsidizes the exact kind of sprawl development that the people of College Station have clearly articulated, through the workshops and surveys associated with the Comprehensive Plan rewrite, that we do not want.

So why is this happening?

I can identify at least five variables contributing to this problem. We, as a community, need to address each of these variables.

1) Bad process in allowing this to go through Public Works without the oversight of citizen review from P&Z. This is where I am really sketchy on the workings of the process. From what I can tell, this has gone through with no place for a red flag, or even notification, to citizens that it is happening.
2) Bad process in allowing developers to daily have the ear of those responsible for long-range planning. We have a great planning department filled with very professional and knowledgeable people committed to the best interest of College Station. Unfortunately that interest is being all too defined by the development community. As a course of business in going through the regulatory processes, the developers are in the offices of our planners every day. This is because those same people who do long-range planning are also charged with enforcement. This means that the most effective lobbyists for the development community have easy and frequent access to those doing long-range planning (i.e. regulating their business.) Homeowners, environmentalists, smart growth people, bicyclists, historic preservationist and any number of other citizen interests do not have this contact. Is it any wonder that the city staff seems unable to oppose any new development no matter how ludicrously bad? This is not a matter of conspiracy; it is a matter of bureaucracy. And we can fix it.
3) Bad culture. In College Station we seem to have a culture in which people do not get involved in an issue unless it is in their own backyard. I can’t tell you the number of times that people have looked at me inquisitively and asked why I get involved in development issues that do not impact my neighborhood. The short answer is that they do impact my neighborhood. Everything that happens in the Brazos Valley impacts all of our neighborhoods. This happens in terms of traffic patterns, accessibility to commerce and alternate forms of transportation; environmental issues as well as those of economics. The less direct answer is that we need to act as a community and stand for neighborhood integrity everywhere in the Brazos Valley.
4) Bad Process in allowing something of this magnitude to go onto the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are regarded as “house keep” items. In other words items that are perfunctory and should not require any discussion. Again this is in the gray area of my knowledge, but it seems that this was made a part of the capital improvements budget for this year and it awaits final approval from council. Any matter of this magnitude (4 million dollars) should not be treated as perfunctory.
5) A city council that does not feel empowered to use the safety net available to them. Even though these roads were proposed when it was thought that they would facilitate St. Joe’s rather than big box sprawl the City Council feels that they are compelled to sign off on this. That is not the case. That is exactly why these items come before them for final approval. Circumstances have changed. No longer are they financing roads to facilitate a heath center run by a church. Now they are signing off on the citizens of College Station financing roads that will be within an area being used for poorly planned big box development and private profit. This is being slipped under the nose of the people of College Station and we depend on our City Council to have the gumption to stop it, so that it can be reevaluated under the current circumstances. We need City Council people who are willing to stand up for the best interest of the people College Station rather than the best interest of certain developers. This effort is going to weaken our community and raise our taxes. Is this what we look for from our elected officials?