May 18, 2016 Dick Conoboy
At the city council meeting on Monday evening several residents spoke to a number of issues that have arisen as the result of the Comprehensive Plan draft that was briefed earlier in the day to the Committee of the Whole. This is the kickoff to the council’s consideration of the changes to the comp plan, the Planning Commission having performed its magic on the draft over several dozen meetings, work sessions and hearings. There will be a hearing on the comp plan at the council’s next meeting on 6 June. I spoke to the council on Monday during the public comment session on the issue of affordability and density (37.41 on the video counter) with a poster child picture of one of the reasons for which families can’t afford homes here and for which we are not even dimly aware of the actual density of any of our neighborhoods. A home in a single family neighborhood for rent at $30,000 per year with six bedrooms. The county property data base lists the 1976 home as a 2 bedroom, 2 bath SF dwelling. What family of modest means can come up with that rent? How do we determine density in a SF neighborhood when 6 people are crammed into a 2 br home that has suddenly and clandestinely morphed into a 6 bedroom unit as advertised on Craigslist? This is not an unusual occurrence as I had four of these on my block of 12 homes at one time. York Neighborhood is full of these types of rentals. There is a lot to be corrected on this comp plan, especially in the housing and land use chapters. Get involved now or your neighborhood may well suffer the consequences a few years down the pike when people will exclaim, “How did this happen?” […]
noisy waters northwest 