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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>Hopefully Jey will survive as what?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>Some questions I am actually quite curious about is why did the land owner walk away years ago? Why did they let their Use and Occupancy to expire? Why was the property left in such egregious disrepair and constant code violation for years? As a small business owner myself, it puzzles me why they allowed any of the events to transpire – it makes absolutely no sense to me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>The landowner would not have any of their current zoning issues if they had remained continually in business. When the owner let their Use and Occupancy expire, they made a strategic decision that they no longer valued grandfathering into a non-conforming building with a non-conforming use. The town also made a strategic decision a decade ago to take the 1994 Master Plan recommendation to create a Mixed-Use Town Center zone, a process that Bruce and others helped drive by being on the Riverdale Park Town Center Committee. Regardless of that decision, the property was zoned C-S-C prior to that. Both C-S-C and M-U-TC zoning require a Special Exception to the zoning for any of the contemplated uses that have been presented over the last 5 years. The town did not create the hurdles, they are applied County-wide to any development within either of those zones. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>Dunkin Donuts and other fast food establishments all require the 10+ month Special Exception processing with the Planning Board, Zoning Hearing Examiner, and District Council. It is not up to the town to make zoning variance decisions. The town is however, completely open to any and all proposals but we are not going to constantly have the same circular discussion year after year. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>To Melissa’s point about Beale Circle that is precisely the point of my proposed legislation that is hopefully being voted on toinght for the Public Arts Initiative. Beale Circle will be the first, of what I hope will be many, pad sites around Riverdale Park that will have sculptures or other art forms to activate our underutilized spaces.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>Jonathan W. Ebbeler<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>Councilman, Ward 1<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#000040'>Chair, Economic Development Committee</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>