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Patrick,
I was just reading the nieghborhood plan where it states that along
Koenig the nieghborhood would like to see office or commerical uses
facing Koenig and then transition to townhouses on the back side.
This would be a great idea for the Howard's site.
We desperately need to consider a transitional land use between dense
multi-family and single family land uses in hood. I am concerned that
in our zealousness to promote VMU we are opening up the door to become
the next West Campus. Is this the nieghborhood vision?
I would have to respectfully disagree with those that say that
Endeavor's plan is wholly consistent with the neighborhood plan. I
would say it is closely aligned, but it lacks the finer details of
being something that fit's the model outlined in the neighborhood
vision.
On 10/1/07, Stefan Pharis wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Patrick Goetz
>
> Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:36:39
> To:nnadl , "Nndl@14gram. Com" , NLPT Chat-line
> Subject: [nndl] Final comments on tonights NNA meeting
>
>
> -
> To respond privately, use the "Reply" command.
> To post to the list "Forward" to [at]
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>
> jody horton wrote:
> > The posts by Patrick alone would prevent anyone from participating, much
> > less speak their mind.
> >
> > Its VERY hurtful and disturbing to be attacked publicly.
> >
>
> If correcting factual errors is seen as an attack, then guilty as
> charged. I humbly apologize for my inconsiderate allegiance to the
> antiquated concept of truthiness.
>
> I heard a pretty good quote on the radio this morning. Historian Daniel
> Boorstin once said "It's fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and
> progress; no agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake."
>
> With that in mind, and as someone who is largely agnostic about this
> variance, there are a couple of things I'd like to point out to those
> who oppose it. I would like people to put on their thinking caps for
> this one and really consider what I'm about to say. Let me be clear
> that I am NOT suggesting that you should support the variance, but
> rather that you think about what realistic alternatives might be better
> for the neighborhood. As far as I can tell, I'm the only one who has
> suggested any kind of alternative, and that was met with deafening
> public silence. It's always easy to complain, much harder to come up
> with solutions. Furthermore, just saying "no" to things you don't like
> is not good planning -- there are other options out there which won't
> require neighborhood input.
>
> In particular, if the Endeavor deal falls through, there seem to be 2
> likely alternatives:
>
> 1. A 175 unit apartment complex
> 2. A strip mall with multiple interchangeable drive-through fast food
> restaurants.
>
> Neither of these require any kind of variance or zoning change and can
> be built with no input from the neighborhood whatsoever.
>
> There is already a small apartment complex just west of Parker's Beauty
> Supply. I really have to ask, do we really want another nondescript
> apartment complex at this location, only ten times as large? And
> without the VMU requirements, the developer can build the complex as
> shoddily as the building code allows, with no sidewalks, no street
> treatment, and no design guidelines. Without the VMU guidelines, the
> developer won't have to spend as much money making it look nice (think
> less like Gables West, more like Riverside Dr.) and hence can offer
> cheaper rents, making it more likely that there will be a large student
> population. The traffic can still exit directly onto Link and we all
> know the dumpsters will be lined up along 56th street. "Yes," someone
> responds, "but that's nevertheless 75 units less than the Endeavor
> proposal." Are 75 living units really going to make that much a
> difference in traffic? There are about 75 houses on my street, and I
> have to say, they just don't generate that much traffic. Over 90% of
> the traffic on Nelray is cut-through traffic. If the only traffic on
> the street were from residents, children could safely play on the street
> any time of day or night. So we're giving up sidewalks, streetscaping,
> higher quality design, and a little local retail in order to negligibly
> reduce traffic? How does this make any sense?
>
> Now let's move on to option #2. There has been much talk about how much
> traffic the Endeavor proposal will dump on neighborhood streets "with no
> sidewalks". If traffic is the biggest concern, then the last thing we
> want to see built on the Howard's site is a strip mall with drive
> through fast food. I'm sure what I'm about to say will fall on deaf
> ears in some quarters, as people simply refuse to believe it, but here
> it is anyway: a strip mall will generate 50%-100% MORE TRAFFIC THAN THE
> ENDEAVOR PROPOSAL, and all of it will be cut-through traffic. There are
> traffic engineers who've spent their entire professional lives working
> on these kinds of statistics and any of them will happily confirm what I
> am telling you. Further, with a strip center, the property will be
> paved over with concrete from lot line to lot line, and yes, the
> drive-through exits will all empty onto Link Ave since Koenig Ln has
> limited egress at that location, as has been pointed out. People will
> be driving up and down Link and other neighborhood streets 24/7 to get
> their McTacoHut fixes. Given that a strip center is currently the most
> likely alternative to the Endeavor Proposal, are we really saying "the
> traffic from the Endeavor proposal will be unbearable, let's instead
> passively encourage a development which will generate twice as much
> traffic and have no green space at all"?
>
> To summarize, if you don't have an alternative to the Endeavor proposal
> in mind, but are opposing the variance, then, like it or not, you are
> passively supporting one of the profit-maximizing options outlined
> above, and that doesn't make any sense to me from any (fact-based)
> perspective.
>
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> Website: Northfield Neighborhood Assoc - www.main.org/nna
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