[RP TownTalk] U.S. Housing Bust!

[Roland Walker]

[bruce.wernek writes]
> with a lot less people so you're supposition that more people will make a
> difference is not the answer.

As a factual matter, this is not a supposition, but the official
policy of the town.  That policy has the force of law via its adoption
by the county.(*)

Construction does cause dust.  A good time to have raised that issue
would have been three years ago when you were personally authoring the
pro-development, pro-density MUTC guidelines.

The traffic issues that you raise were studied by traffic and planning
professionals during the MUTC process, which, as one of the principal
architects of MUTC, you must surely be aware.

A law is a law.  We have laid out laws under which they have the right
to develop, because you, as a member of the Town Center Committee,
chose to promote development.  I thank you for that decision, Bruce. 
It was the right one.

Currently, whether or not we like dust is not up for meaningful
discussion.  What is up for discussion is whether the town should
grant a variance to allow the Patriot Group to go two stories beyond
what the zoning allows.

Here's a substantive point for discussion: we can have three stories
with exterior parking, (which they are allowed to do already), or we
can have five stories with hidden parking, which will require a
variance.  Some people think that having lots of cars outside is
unsightly.  Personally I think cars look fine, but I am concerned that
a five-story building will be too big.  It's a trade-off; the right
decision can only be made by getting input from many interested
citizens.

The reason I oppose talking about dust is that there are a number of
substantive issues to address.  We can't let them get past us if we
want to get good development which benefits our town.

R

(*) technical point: zoning authority ultimately resides with the
county; we only get such authority as they may choose to delegate to
us.