Waiting for you to call me up...
Tonight at 7 pm, the Planning Board will be taking testimony on the proposed height limits in Town Center. If you can't make, they'll be accepting written testimony until Friday. More info here (PDF).
Also tonight, the Wilde Lake candidates forum is going down at Slayton House at 7:30 pm.
5 comments:
I only stayed til 9 pm, but it rocked! I'm tired now, but I posted a little about it on Hometown Columbia and on the Choose Civility blogs.
Since we are self-promoting, I also put up a small blurb about last night's hearing.
http://www.hedgehogreport.com/index.php/6906
Unfortunately I only stayed until about 9pm as well. Did anyone stay after the break?
Maybe now the CoFoBoBo people will realize now that they are only speaking for a very small percentage of people in Columbia. I doubt it though. I am sure they will come out with some conspiracy theory on how everyone who testified against the zoning admendments are in the pockets of WCI.
I think last night's pb meeting created a false impression of the balance of opinion in Howard County. Having 80% of the people who are against the Tower show up vs. 20% who are against it, and for the actual head counts, less attorneys, to be roughly the same does not indicate a "very small percentage." What it does indicate is a better organized group who perceives a potential loss. Fearing a potential loss of something will generate more urgency (hence, better turnout)than trying to prevent soomething.
I thought the testimony of all the people from both positions was thoughtful, educational, and, for the most part, civil. The speakers against the ZRA's were much more formally attired and when they spoke, they tended to use logic to to present their case. Some of the rhetoric was a tad "Ccken Little-ish, but I believe they believe it.
Those favoring the amendments, of whom I am one, tended to be more casually dressed and spoke often from the heart rather than the head. No judgement, just observation.
I appreciated especially Barbara Lawson and Liz Bobo's testimony. Both women are highly respected, well thought of and committed to Columbia's future. They are of different minds on this issue, but their testimony was presented in a thoughtful and respectful manner. This is my hope for the rest of us: that we continue to act civilly, seek to understand as well as to be understood, and realize that in the end, we are so privileged that this building height issue is our big deal. Not jobs, poverty, hunger, genocide etc. Building heights. May we always be so fortunate.
I was at the hearing until the end, and being able to identify many of both supporters of the proposed zoning regulation amendments and opponents of same, my math is a bit different. My calculation is that only a fraction of the zra opponenets were present. The people who spoke against the proposed zoning regulation amendments represented larger constituencies -- would be purchasers of Plaza condos, owners at Lakeside, professionals who work in the development field, members of the business community from the elder statesmen to the young professionals, and both older and newer residents of Columbia. The testimony from them was heartfelt, too, even though they were better dressed.
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