Columbia Lakes

I went to the council committee meetings last night in order to present some information for the library board. I did get to sit through another round of Columbia Lakes discussion while waiting for my meeting to begin.

In the end the council seemed against the CUP. The Mayor noted the criteria in the CUP citing something along the lines of "promoting the moral well being of the citizens". The motion was made to approve the CUP by Aldermen Ebersohl if I remember correctly and that motion died on a lack of second. After a few more comments Aldermen Huch made a motion to not approve the CUP as presented, it also died on a lack of second.

The crowd, mainly consisting of Columbia Lakes residents, seemed happy with the results. I think the coucil was trying to do a couple things last night.

• Work to keep the public happy, which it seems it accomplished, for now at least.
• Keep the city out of a lawsuit, by neither voting for or against the CUP the city has in fact set it aside and is simply saying they are not interested in it as presented. The trouble with that is they were interested as recent as a few weeks ago, until people started calling them. The plan was approved by I think the zoning board of appeals, so it had traction for being accepted.
• By not approving or disapproving they leave the option open for the developer to come back and tweak the plan and try to get it approved again.

The real estate broker representing the developer was sort of called out for "threatening" that R-7 is a real possibility, I feel that's a real shame since he is also a resident of Columbia Lakes. I think the city once again proved unable to work with a developer. They asked the developer to change some things and he did, the developer had worked from what I saw very hard to meet whatever concerns the city and the residents had (tree lines, fences, use of amenities, open to suggestions of any kind, assurances there would be no section eight housing, assurances to sell as a preference to leasing)

The people in Columbia Lakes all seemed very willing to "gamble" that no developer will come in and just build to the R-7 restrictions. If/When the property gets cheap enough someone may do just that and there will be nothing to stop that from happening.

I was glad to see the school district voice a request for some money from the developer to offset the increase in residents. I still cannot figure out why the school district and the city seem to never talk to each other, maybe we should open that channel of communication a little more.

How would I feel if I owned a house backed up to the proposed CUP?
Would I want the proposed CUP built behind my house? Probably not.Would I want R-7 built directly behind my house? Definitely not and I'm normally not a betting man.