Live from City Hall! The CityVille zoning hearing

Read the follow-up editorial to this story: It's time to get mad about Lower Greenville's future - click here

This is a first... BD was blogging from the City Plan Commission hearing on CityVille Thursday afternoon.

The last time BD was at City Hall, Mad Maxine made sure the guards had his picture in their pockets and the wifi signal was not open to the public.

It was a spur of the moment decision, but it captures the essence of what happened at this hearing, and the personalities involved. And if you are to believe the comments coming back to BD, many of these personalities were none too happy to find their lies posted on the Internet before they were hiding in their back bedrooms again. There were nearly 1,000 hits to this page in less than 24 hours.

What follows is an edited version of the original real-time blog - in proper time sequence, corrected spelling (we hope), complete names, and more backgroud information. BD's personal comments are inserted in italics between the paragraphs.

FirstWorthing built the residential portion of the CityVille Lower Greenville development, and Greenway Investment built the retail portion. Greenway Investment made the zoning request, and was represented at the hearing by Joel Maten. For the sake of clarity, we use the name CityVille in this story.

BD will also stop using the term LGWNA to describe this group of neighbors. The original LGWNA was founded by Bill Dickerson, and many of the current residents in this faux group were part of that group. But after Bill came out in support of the CityVille proposal in 2002, they kicked him out and created a phony association.

They are not a neighborhood association. They are neighborhood thugs.

This new group includes maybe 10 members, does not publicize their meetings to Hispanic neighbors (which make up most of the neighborhood they claim to represent), and are a bunch of hypocrites. Your correspondent spent many a Crimewatch night on their side of Greenville, when they were afraid to come outside and deal with the troublemakers.

They hide in their houses every weekend, rubbing their hands together and whispering, Oh, woe is me! How can I destroy my neighborhood today?

515 pm

The hearing is now open, starting with a presentation by CityVille's Joel Maten. No graphics, no charts, just the facts.

He's citing the 6,800 sf sitting empty for nearly two years. Baker Bros Deli wants to lease the space if the zoning can be changed. He is asking for an extension of time to meet with the neighbors and a bus tour by the Commissioners.

Resident Karen Lawrence says that they oppose restaurants in any new development in the area. Recalling the day when the City Council voted on CityVille, they were surprised by a last minute request for meetings.

The last minute negotiations resulted in what she thought were good compromises. But now she regrets dropping their opposition. She said CityVille was an ocean of misery in their lives, and they wanted it to end.

They agreed to no nighttime restaurant operations in the development in the location. Now CityVille wants to undo the deal, and they are so sorry they trusted them, enough is enough. If we let this go, we might get 19,000 sf of restaurant.

Did anyone say Keller Williams planned to leave their new offices tomorrow??

During the 2003 negotiations, the residents did everything they could to intimidate not only CityVille but other residents. At a public meeting, they wanted to know how far the supporting residents lived from the development, jeering anyone who did not live on their side of Lower Greenville.

They would not let CityVille organize meetings they could not control. All negotiations took place in Mad Maxine's offices, with only their group allowed to participate. Bill Dickerson was banned from these meetings.

They tried to ban BD from driving his truck on the other side of Greenville. And Mad Maxine told a reporter that BD and Dickerson were both on the take to CityVille for supporting the development.

530 pm

Bruce Richardson for the residents has a boombox at the podium. He is playing John Loza's recitation of the restrictions from the City Council meeting in 2003. He just invoked God as his witness that a deal is a deal. He says the traffic study commissioned by CityVille was flawed from the start. CityVille's problem is not that they have a zoning issue, but they built an expensive space that nobody wants to lease.

LGNA's Gay Hopkins takes the podium. She says LGNA was glad to support this group of residents two years ago, and continues to support them today. She wants a denial with prejudice.

A new resident of the area is now speaking. No idea who he is, but his speech is well written. He claims that he is glad that his neighbors fought to keep the noise and traffic down to levels that he can deal with. But every weekend he is disturbed by the traffic and bar noise, and does not want to see it get worse.

He says that CityVille has no respect for the neighbors. They need to shut up and live with the deal they made three years ago.

Someone ask this guy why he did not look out the door when he bought his house at Richmond and Summit and see all the bars?? Did he expect it all to go away just because he doesn't like it?? You can't apply that argument to folks who have been here for years, but when you just move in and start complaining, don't come begging for slack.

Better idea - Come out with BD and take a tour on our side of Greenville, if your handlers will let you!

Cheryl Kellis for the residents: She's tired of coming to City Hall for all these damn hearings. Year after year after year, won't it ever stop?? She wants denial with prejudice so bad she can taste it.

The residents' attorney, Michael Jung, takes the podium. He says good deals are made and agreed upon every day at City Hall. Why should we not expect the developer to honor his agreement? He says other deals are coming down the pike, and we need to have good deals that don't change.

Talk about depressing. The other deals he refers to are the proposed Arcadia Theatre mixed use (60 apartments, commercial, retail and parking), and the Whole Foods property, which WF is vacating by the end of the year in order to move to Abrams/Richmond.

If these proposed re-developments are forced to accept the same restrictions imposed on CityVille, no one will want to build a decent project down here. We won't end up with empty footprints of land, but we will end up with troubling and ugly neighbors.

Bruce stands up and plays a tape of Veletta Lill from the 2003 council meeting: The CityVille vote was a new day for Lower Greenville (not sic).

Jung wants the deal denied with prejudice. Period.

535pm

CityVille's Maten is back up at the podium. He immediately starts correcting all the lies and misinformation from the residents

• They are not asking for rezoning of 19,000 square feet - the whole building is only 15,000 sf. Keller Williams occupies 8,200 sf, which means just 6,800 sf is under discussion today.
• They are the only building on Lower Greenville with private and complete off-street parking (63 spaces, exceeding the requirements) and parking ramps not facing Greenville Avenue.
• The zoning experiment demanded by the residents just did not work. Things changed, reality set in. We can plan all day for new retail, but it did not work under these circumstances.
• The residents want empty storefronts on the street.

CityVille brought in former District 2 City Council rep John Loza to talk with the residents. He tells the panel CityVille asked him months ago to work with them and the residents to reach a solution. The meetings John requested never happened, no matter how many times they called the residents. In light of that inability to meet, he does not think it's inappropriate to put the issue under advisement (a delay on zoning application that can last up to a few months).

Loza concedes it's a valid point to say the zoning conditions imposed in 2004 were strictly concepts; but now the reality in 2006 are empty storefronts - not a good idea. He's willing to continue brokering the meetings between residents and CityVille. And if the Plan Commission votes to deny, he asks that they make it without prejudice.

Loza said he would not have agreed to the restaurant and hours restriction when it was put to the Council in 2003, but they were part of a bigger picture that seemed to get the parties together and agreeing on the whole project. It's now time to revisit the issue, especially since CityVille can't lease the storefront.

Loza talked about having been on Greenville Avenue at bar closing time many times while he was a Council member. The problems, he said, are not the few restaurants in the area, but the bars and their patrons flooding the area at 2am. Most of the problems are the booze serving establishments. This location will not allow alcohol sales and therefore won't contribute to the problems.

545 pm

Plan Commissioner Neil Emmons calls Cheryl Kellis back to the podium for a question. He wanted to know if there was any hope of a compromise being reached on this issue.

Too bad she was nervous - her rehearsed answer starting coming out of her mouth before Emmons has time to finish asking the question.

She said the developers are setting a bad precedent by allowing a smaller restaurant to open in CityVille now. Eventually they will want to expand and make lots of money, and the only way to make money is by selling alcohol.

The zoning restrictions do not allow the sales of any alcoholic beverages. There is no way any area neighborhood association will allow any change to that restriction.

CityVille's Maten announced earlier they were in negotiations with Baker Brothers Deli to lease the space for a restaurant.

Checking with the Upper Greenville Avenue location, BD confirmed there are 9 franchisees in Texas, plus six more in Colorado, Nevada and Arkansas (not all operating yet).

The Upper Greenville location is the company training store - it is the only one in Texas serving beer and wine.

Attorney Michael Jung for the residents: He claims they were contacted by CityVille just two weeks ago and offered three different meeting times. He says it is not fair to ask for an advisement so late in the game.

CityVille's Maten: He was in the office every day for the past month, did not travel out of town on holiday, and not once did any representative of this group contact him. John Loza (working on behalf of CityVille as a mediator) made numerous attempts to arrange a meeting, all to no avail.

550 pm

Plan Commissioner Jeff Strater (representing District 2) wants the Commission to vote for denial without prejudice, so discussions can continue on this issue. Motion made and seconded.

One commissioner tells the parties to get their stuff together. She knows how bad the bars can be, and does not want to see another bar in the area. But she also knows that empty storefronts a successful neighborhood do not make.

The vote is 11 (unanimous) for denial without prejudice.

A denial means CityVille can come back and file another rezoning proposal, starting the whole process over again. When BD left the Chambers, the residents were extremely agitated about this unexpected development. It's clearly obvious they were not expecting their own plan commissioner to make such a motion. They wanted a denial with prejudice, killing (in their opinions) the CityVille dragon once and forever (see notes re having to live the nightmare for three years).

The residents had Maten in their death-grip in the Council lobby - we just hope he got out alive!

Read the follow-up editorial to this story: It's time to get mad about Lower Greenville's future - click here