I’ve had this bit in my notebook for a week, and finally have time to write about it:
Mayor Pat McCrory was right – but wrong – at last week’s City Council meeting (March 9) when he badgered a planner about why planners removed a street connection from the Arrowood Transit Station Area plan.
He was right to question it and to say city planners should give their best professional planning judgment, not bow to political pressure. (At least, that’s what I think he was trying to point out. And I must note that many elected officials get similarly huffy when planners act oblivious to political reality. But I digress…)
But McCrory shouldn’t have hectored planner Alberto Gonzalez, who was presenting the plan.
In fact, Gonzalez ended up fainting or passing out – apparently because he hadn’t eaten for some time – which made the scene even more dramatic.
The staff had originally proposed a street connection from Sharon Lakes Road to Hill Road. But neighbors in Starmount didn’t like that idea. (See my Feb. 28 column, “Aiming at where the future will be,” about connectivity.)
So, Gonzalez told the council, “We went back and took a closer look.” And they deleted that street connection. Their thinking, he said, was that such connections are made when property is developed or redeveloped, and since the property in question was relatively newly developed, it wasn’t realistic to think it would be redeveloped again any time in the near future.
McCrory wouldn’t let him off the hook. He said, in essence, “Your job is to give us the planning perspective, not make judgments about what will or won’t fly politically.” So, he continued, was your recommendation during the public hearing incorrect? The poor planner was going to have to say, “Yes, we were wrong,” or “Yes, we caved politically.” I can’t remember at what point he blacked out. It might have been right about then.
Warren Cooksey hopped into the discussion to note that the plan should probably have the connections that planners think are needed, because a redevelopment might occur even if it is, today, deemed unlikely, and you’d want that street connection to be in the plan.
The upshot: The City Council adopted the plan with only Cooksey voting against. The mayor doesn’t have a vote on those matters. Here’s a link that will let you look at the Draft Plan and the revisions. The original street connection proposed is on Page 13 of the Draft Plan.