Terminal myopia When one looks at the programs of College Station City Council candidate John Crompton and his cronies, the only proper description of their policies is terminal myopia. One can say that Crompton has cost the city millions in tax dollars by his anti-development stance in defiance of established zoning codes. This is especially true in the case of development on Rock Prairie Road and Texas 6. This area was already zoned for the development of commercial activity when the developer purchased the property. [Editor's note: Only a portion of the land purchased by Weingarten Realty was zoned for "big box" commercial development. The city council voted not to rezone the rest of the land for that purpose.] Crompton led the charge to deny the developer the use of his commercially zoned property. This anti-development, unfriendly and demagogic attitude is leading business to relocate to other cities. This is causing College Station to lose not only desperately needed tax dollars for our schools, etc., but causing business to reject College Station as unfriendly to business and development. One only has to attend a session of the Planning and Zoning Commission to see that we have some of the best and brightest planners in three states. They insist developers not only follow the rules, but that they invest heavily in infrastructure to reduce city costs for necessary growth. They are protecting the integrity of older neighborhoods. No developer gets a free ride. Now is not the time to be myopic. It is time to look through the selfish, myopic, anti-development, anti-growth stances of politicians such as Crompton and look to our future. College Station is destined to continue to grow. Our most valuable resource, our young citizens, need jobs and opportunities if they are to stay in the area. Those jobs will not happen if we have anti-development, myopic politicians such as Crompton and his ilk in power. Vote for our future. Vote for realists Derek Dictson, Ron Gay and Chris Scotti. JIM MANESS College Station
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
And Another
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Less than 10 acres is zoned for comercial development at Rock Prairie and Hwy 6, the rest is either AgOpen or R4, Multi Family. Weingarten Realty does not own the part that is C-1, they are leasing it from the Scamardos.
The real problem, and main objection to the "Super WalMart" project on Rock Prairie, was that the existing infrastructure did not support the intensity of the development. Consider that if developed, it would have been the largest development in College Station since Post Oak Mall. But Post Oak Mall does have the roads to carry the traffic, and is not on top of single family residences. Traffic flow is, and has been a problem at Rock Prairie for quite a while, and is well recognized and documented by the city and the consultants that studied the area. It simply did not fit that location and should not have been built, even though the taxes from the development would have been nice for the city.
And keep in mind that several houses at the front of Woodcreek were negatively affected by the Mariot Courtyard Hotel buit there. People staying in rooms at the back of the hotel above the first floor can look into the back yards and homes there. It is much too close to the houses that were already there, and should have either been built closer to the frontage road, or not at all. The city was not acting in a mannor responsible to it's citizens in allowing that project to be built. And even though they have admitted it was a mistake, they allowed a similar mistake to occur at the entrance to Raintree. If those things happened to homes in Nantucket, I'd bet that HOA would be upset too.
But this is not about stopping developement, or making developers pay for thing they should not be responsible for. And to say that it is, is simply distracting attention away from the real issues that so many citizens are concerned about. So perhaps this is something that has been building for some time, and many citizens are wanting changes in the process to protect their familes and way of life. I don't think that is too much to expect.
Paul
Post a Comment