Ok now that the cobwebs have cleared up, well pretty much, it is time to discuss what you have all been waiting for. Some are waiting expectantly for my offbeat take on the drama that is local politics, others may be waiting to see if they have made into my discussion whether positively or negatively. My blog is not to walk on eggshells, to make me the most popular person in my neighborhood, so I would be surprised if some people weren’t offended or put off by what I have to say. If by some miracle, certain people haven’t been yet; I will definitely try harder.
Wednesday’s meeting was a council work session, to ask questions of the developer and the architect. I would first like to commend both Jeff Maxwell and Kevin Monson for what I have to attribute to having the patience of Job. This process for anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock has gone on way to long, has changed the script, and the expectations way too often, and has been driven too much but the loudest voices in the room, instead of the wants and need of the community. The fact that they subject themselves to this ongoing headache is admirable.
There can be no doubt that Councilor Quezada did quite a bit of preparation and homework before the meeting, at times she seemed to be grilling Monson on every small aspect of the current Concept. But her questions were on point and gave a clear demonstration as to the wants of the community. The community wants some commercial amenities in close proximity to our homes. We want the structures to fit into the character of the community. (There may be some disagreement as to what that character is). She spoke to the sustainability of the development, the question of rental condos first sold ones, active versus dead spaces, and as we all have come to expect her own green movement bias in a discussion of eco-friendly systems. I have to take just a moment to poke fun at Silvia for her use of multiple tenses of the word concept. From conceptualize to conception, it seems that every other word had something to do with concept, I think maybe the community should provide her with a Thesaurus.
And what we learned at most points was that all of these concerns were willing to be addressed in the project development as soon as they were sure the concept basics were acceptable. You could sense the frustration in the developer and architect that they have brought plan after plan after plan just to find them hung up by some other problem. The dragged feet of the past years has had a toll on the developers, the council, and the community as a whole. It is time to accept the inevitable, and give positive feedback as we move toward a new fixture in University Heights that we all can find merit in.
But I don’t have a ton more to say about the council discussion, it is the public comments where we get down to the real heart of the matter. I could go over the positive elements from where I sit, but that is not what I have much to say about. There were things I agreed with, things I thought had merit, and some things that made me laugh, and I found almost absurd. So I will deal mainly with the last category. Why, because I am not a reporter, but much more a critic, and it is more interesting to read the criticism.
It was suggested that we bring in other architecture to let the council pick and choose the elements that they wanted to be included, and that we all needed to see a scale model. The model is an important aspect, because I know they aren’t cheap or easy to prepare, so the more models we request the more cost is involved, and truthfully, are any of those opposed going to be convinced of anything by looking at a model. I feel that we should engage in walking the tight rope between gaining as much information, exploring as many options as possible, while still keeping an eye on the cost efficiency of the requests we are making.
The next comments I want to discuss were those that were presented to the council in written form and read for the rest of us for a community member who could not be present. Unfortunately I was unable to grab a copy of them, so I have to go solely off my notes. But let me first point out that almost any comment coming from those who were originally on the other side of the last election, push, nay I say demand slow deliberate movement forward. Do they truly think the council is stupid, or that the rest of the community cant see the stalling tactics. While I understand the need for thoughtful deliberation, to understand the size and scale of the decisions being made, there comes a point where enough is enough and this trudging through the muddy minutia just to have yet another plan dragged down by some obscene objection has played itself out. So the calls for the independent accounting overviews, the outside concept designs and all of those other requests should just be left unsaid. The council is perfectly capable of watching the plan, evaluating the funding, and seeking outside sources if necessary, but the painting of the developer as pushing to build us a three little pig pop up development and running off with the bank just seems absurd. Secondly the characterization of the roof garden area of the back building as being a party room almost made me die laughing. Did I miss the memo that we were selling all of the condos to millionaire trust fund playboys? Does Iowa have some frat of over entitled Brats that I havent heard about? A rooftop garden, will be a wonderful amenity that can be rented out for weddings, receptions, and other higher scale functions, I really doubt we have to worry about Delta Tau Chi throwing a kegger there. (Applause if you got the reference, and a face plam for me if you did not). But dont worry, I can use hyperbole as well as anyone else, and maybe I will break out some of my own in the next meeting.
The other main complaint was based on the height of the back building. Again I want the community to look at what they are asking. We don’t want this, we don’t want that, and we definitely don’t want to finance that; in this case certain accommodations have to be made, and certain concessions need to be found. But “Golly Wiz that’s pretty tall” is a description we are given of the concept by one of the detractors, I almost expected Gomer Pyle to jump out and say shazaam. But we don’t want a strip mall in the front building and we don’t want the back building to be much taller than 4 stories, and we want it to have a small foot print. It is clear that some members of the community aren’t going to like whatever goes up, and they are perfectly well entitled to their opinions, but they shouldn’t carry any more weight that any other persons opinion.
When the height of the building was discussed and Monson pointed out a demonstration that was put together showing the visuals of such a project, and what the sight lines, and visual impact of the project would be; my most entertaining neighborhood malcontent called the presentation nothing but smoke and mirrors, and more entertainingly called it “Poopy”. As the zoning restrictions, the reasoning behind the height, and other factors were attempting to be explained, all she could say was “I don’t care if it’s within the zoning.” and more complaints that it will be too tall, and she didn’t like it. Ok, you don’t like it, noted….. can we please move on now. A scale model which will adequately show the height of the back building will be present at the next meeting from what I hear, and then we can see that we aren’t building the Empire State building in our back yard.
Unfortunately the grinches and murmurers sat too far away for me to hear the continual whispers, snide comments, and nitpicks during the meeting, but every time I looked that way, they were quick to cover their mouths with their notepads so I couldn’t even employ my superior lip-reading skills. And I don’t see the point in trying to learn to read minds before the next one, because I really don’t care that much, it just makes for some interesting writing at some points. We are moving in the right direction on this project, the council is being diligent, and the community has escaped with only the most minor of temper tantrums to this point. The pessimist in me knows that things will get much more heated before all is said any done, but my guess is it will be anything but dull. So strap on your seat-belts, take your heart medication and jump on board; scoot over Mae West, because its going to be a bumpy ride.
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