At Plan Commission meeting
Save-the-trees crowd turns into ill-mannered mob
Bellowing across the room to interrupt and drown out a commission member . . . Refusing to acknowledge reasoned explanations about school properties and zoning. . . Insisting that the Mark Twain woods be declared a wetland . . . Demanding that the developer reveal publicly how much money he expects to make . . . Spitting out the word "developer" with the same venom that bigots display when uttering words like wop, kike, nigger, spick . . . Suggesting that clearing the Mark Twain lot for development will increase global warming  . . .

 

Such was the crowd that hoped to derail any attempt to erect homes on Campbell Road, at the site of the former Mark Twain School.

 

Plan Commission Chairman Tom Hallock was lenient to the point of permissiveness in permitting some individuals to address the commission a second time, but he maintained quiet control throughout those outbursts and the rest of the 4-plus-hour meeting. The ill-mannered presenters unfortunately left more of an impression than did the quieter souls who wanted to talk about matters like parking and traffic flow and to question the need for any houses at all in a down-market like the present. Through the hubbub, Commissioner Capello courteously encouraged the residents to work with the developer, as other neighborhoods have successfully done. [Had I been Chair, I would have cleared the room when the crowd began shouting at Commissioner Capello, then let in only those persons recognizably involved with remaining agenda items. As early 20th Century comedian W. C. Fields suggested in another context, "This is carrying democracy too far!"]

 

Under Hallock at least, Plan Commission meetings are less structured that City Commission meetings in that he permits appropriate real-time exchanges between and among attendees and petitioners and commissioners at times other than each related Public Hearing. Thus the Mark Twain developer exchanged comments with the audience, and several commissioners and Hallock interjected explanatory comments as the discussions went along.

 

There was other business before the Plan Commission: Decisions were made or postponed about matters like modifying existing land use permits; new mixed use petitions; conversion of an interior warehouse into an indoor amusement facility; erection of a drive through pharmacy a the Meijer's location on Coolidge. As such matters move through the system, the public will have the ability to provide input again -- at the Zoning Board of Appeals or at the City Commission or at both, depending on specific issues.

 

So dedicated to their mission are the Plan Commissioners that -- after finishing official business -- they conducted an informational exchange among themselves about zoning matters. As I left watching the Plan Commission to watch the last inning of the All Star Game, I was exhausted on behalf of Mayor Ellison and City Commissioner Capello, who the night before had spent hours attending to CITCOM business. -- 11 July 2007