Dear Historic Sylvan Park members and
others,
Below is an e-mail I just posted on a list
serve for neighborhoods, but it's very important to Sylvan Park as it directly
relates to the cost of expanding our overlay.
Please take a moment to read over the message below
then e-mail the Council at council...@nashville.gov and
express your support for BL2014-715.
Sorry for the short notice, but I just found out it
was set for tonight's Council agenda.
John Summers
URGENT Neighborhood based zoning -
BL2014-715
IMMEDIATE
ACTION NEEDED
During the first term of the Dean
Administration, funding to pay for the mailing and advertising costs
for zoning bills generated by the community and sponsored by the Council
person was cut from the MPC/MHZC commission budgets.
What that meant was that individuals and/or
neighborhood associations have had to pay themselves for conservation overlays,
UDO's, down zoning, etc. any zoning changes that the community wanted to protect
and preserve our neighborhoods.
These were funded by the departments when I left the
Council in 2007. During my sixteen years in the Council, I passed a
two down zonings, a UDO, five conservation overlays and filed another, all
without costs to the neighborhoods. By the spring of 2011 the
residents had to pay $1,400 for a conservation overlay on Elkins-Park Aves. in
Sylvan Park. The expansion we are currently looking at in
Sylvan Park is estimated to cost between $6,000-8,000.
Hillsboro-West End just paid several thousand dollars for their overlay
extensions. That's a lot of money for a group of individuals to have to
raise.
What does this all mean? It means that
wealthier neighborhoods can afford the zoning protections they want or need and
poorer neighborhoods cannot. It means unequal zoning policy between
neighborhoods based upon the ability to pay. It means some
neighborhoods are shut out of the process when they find out the costs
involved.
I think this violations the equal protection clauses
of the constitution, but it would take a lawsuit to prove it.
Fortunately, TONIGHT Councilwoman Blalock has
a bill on the Council agenda that addresses this issue. (See Council
Analysis below)
It would waive the fees for these types of zoning
requests, the ones neighborhoods and good council members use to protect their
neighborhoods. This is not just about inner city neighborhoods, this
impacts all neighborhoods throughout the county.
The Planning Commission has disapproved it, so it
takes 27 votes, and the Director if Finance won't sign it saying there are no
funds available. Interestingly on the same calendar
tonight is a resolution to spend $9 million in supplemental appropriations from
the undesignated fund balance for department cost overruns. And the
MPC seems to have the funds to pay for the projects it wants to approve (like
the Mid-town rezoning).
I urge you to contact the members of Council NOW and urge them to
support this ordinance.
It's on
public hearing TONIGHT. Please try to come down and speak in its
favor. I plan on being there.
Without this funding, down zoning from R to RS,
historic overlay districts, some SPs, UDO's, are going to be pretty much
available only to the wealthier neighborhoods. That's unfair and bad
public policy.
This bill restores some control over zoning to the
neighborhoods through your Council representative.
But we need to show the Council our support, this
has received little attention.
Thanks.
John Summers
Historic Sylvan Park
415-3016
MEMORANDUM TO: All Members of the
Metropolitan Council
FROM: Jon Cooper,
Director
Metropolitan Council Office
DATE: April 1,
2014
RE:
Revised Analysis – Ordinance No.
BL2014-715
ORDINANCE
NO. BL2014-715 (BLALOCK) – This ordinance amends the Metro zoning code to provide a
waiver of the zoning application fee and public hearing notice costs for zoning
applications initiated by members of council. The zoning code includes several
limited situations where the zoning application fee can be waived for
applications filed by members of council:
-
Rezoning
the property from a greater intensity residential use to a lesser intensity
residential use (i.e., an "R" district to an "RS" district);
-
Rezoning
the property from an office, commercial, or industrial district to a
residential or residential single-family district;
-
Rezoning
ten or more parcels from a specific plan district to another base zoning
district;
-
Applying
the urban design overlay district, historic preservation district,
neighborhood conservation district, or urban zoning overlay district;
or
-
Cancelling a planned unit development district that has been
determined by the planning commission to be inactive.
This ordinance would basically give each Council
Member one “free” zoning application for applications that do not satisfy the
fee waiver criteria noted above. In addition, the planning department would be
required to absorb the costs for the printing and mailing of written notices, as
well as the preparation of public notice signs, for zoning applications
initiated by Members of Council that fall under the fee waiver provisions.
The director of finance has refused to sign this
ordinance as to availability of funds. The planning department has estimated
that this ordinance would have an annual impact to the department’s budget of
approximately $90,000. A copy of the finance director’s letter and the planning
department’s analysis are attached to this analysis.
This ordinance has been disapproved by the
planning commission.
