Stakeholders agree: city must reform land-use policies

From left, City Council member Jerry Wade, city Planning and Development Director Tim Teddy, former council member and neighborhood association president Bob Hutton, and developer Rob Wolverton.

Representatives of the development community, a neighborhood association and city officials found common ground during a forum on how to build consensus among neighbors and developers.

Everyone sitting around a table at the top of The Tiger Hotel on June 9 agreed that the city’s planning and development system is broken and that the ambiguities compound the current atmosphere of mistrust.

“What this issue really comes down to is a matter of trust,” said Rob Wolverton, president of R. Anthony Development. “From the developers’ standpoint, I believe a formalized system that allows that level of trust – not necessarily with individuals but a level of trust in the system – would be a giant step in the right direction.”

Bob Hutton, a former city council member and president of the Country Club Estates Neighborhood Association, criticized the system during a recent City Council meeting in which members approved construction of an acute care hospital in his neighborhood. At the forum, he said, “As Rob said, trust is a huge part of this.”

City Planning and Development Director Tim Teddy told the participants that his staff is preparing proposed rule changes that would clarify the role of neighborhood organizations in the zoning decision-making process and the communication process.

Craig Van Matre, a local attorney who served on a diverse committee that studied land-use processes and procedures in 2006, said the forum Monday “was about changing the system so that those who want to participate in the process are heard in a constructive forum instead of a needlessly adversarial one.”

Van Matre said after the forum that “everything is always on the table for discussion, and every discussion takes place in numerous venues and multiple times as different pressure groups present the appearance of having influence over the City Council. In short, the present system rewards large scale and wealthy developers who have the resources to fight the process through, but discourages any small developer who wants to do something other than a single family subdivision.”

Council member Laura Nauser talks with Jay Linder of Forum Development Group

Wade said the effort to include more neighborhood participation in the planning and zoning process began a decade ago when he and other Planning and Zoning commissioners “created a new expectation that developers and neighbors talk.”

But Wade added, “We didn’t define what that meant. We didn’t define any guidelines. We didn’t define any expectations. We didn’t provide any resources or capability to ensure it could be done right. The outcome was that it didn’t work very well.”

The mistrust led to confrontational public hearings on development projects that often lasted past midnight and hit a fever pitch earlier this year during a Council debate on the Crosscreek Center project at U.S. 63 and Stadium Boulevard.

Columbia Chamber of Commerce Vice President Kristi Ray said the Council must find a way to ensure that meetings end by 10 p.m. to get more people involved in the process. Other forum participants agreed that there are many residents who are too busy to participate in the current system of deciding land-use issues.

But Wolverton said there always seems to be a faction of project opponents who perceive conversations with developers in advance of public hearings before Council as a waste of time because they believe developers will ignore them and just “cut a back-room deal with City Council.”

“We are enmeshed in stereotypes,” Wade said. “Developers are viewed as people who only care about themselves, only want to get their way and don’t listen. Neighborhood activists are viewed as people who only care about themselves, only want to get their way and don’t listen.”

In 2006, the Stakeholders Work Group, which included representatives of all sides of the issue, including adversaries, came out with a report recommending reforms similar to those Teddy’s staff is now working on.

The group advised the City Council during a public hearing that “the system is broken and the problem starts with the City Council,” Wade said. “It was a profound conversation.” But the effort stalled, and Wade said that was one of the reasons he decided to run for a seat on the council.

Chamber of Commerce Vice President Kristi Ray, right, and Word Marketing Vice President Michelle Mountjoy.

“The really good news is that major moves are taking place,” Wade said. “Those who want to work in the old model will be marginalized.”

The Council has given itself an informal deadline of Aug, 1 to implement expanded notification requirements and gave Teddy a July 1 deadline to issue a report on neighborhood participation guidelines along with a Sept. 1 deadline for a report on ways other communities are eliminating duplicate hearings. The Council intends to come up with proposals for eliminating duplicate hearings and finish a study of mediation as an option by Oct. 1.

“I think we can foster a climate of greater trust,” Teddy said during the forum. “On the majority of projects, developers and neighbors are closer than they think they are.”

However, Jay Gephardt, owner of The Civil Group, said for reforms such as the elimination of duplicate hearings to work, the City Council itself is going to have to trust the members of the city staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission and not trump their decisions.

Power Lunch Participants
Presenters:

• Jerry Wade, 4th Ward City Council Representative
• Rob Wolverton, President, R. Anthony Development
• Bob Hutton, Former 3rd Ward City Council Representative and.President, Country Club Estates Neighborhood Association
• Tim Teddy, City Planning & Development Director
• Sarah Reed, President, The Communications Center

Guests:

• Jeff Barrow, Chairman, City Planning & Zoning Commission
• Tim Crockett, Partner, Crocket Engineering Consultants
• Jay Gephardt, Owner, The Civil Group
• Jay Lindner, Executive Vice President, Forum Development Group
• Laura Nauser, 5th Ward City Council Representative
• Kristi Ray, Vice President, Columbia Chamber of Commerce
• Craig Van Matre, Van Matre, Harrison,Volkert & Hollis PC