P&Z shows its pro-developer bias

Virtually any planning and zoning debate — regardless of the size or the location of the city or town in which the debate takes place — boils down to an argument between those who align themselves with developers against those who identify themselves as pro-existing neighborhood. And the city government — depending on those elected to public office — will be steadfastly on one side or the other. It really doesn’t matter what the particular issue is, the elected officials are either always going to come down on the side of the developers or always on the side of neighborhood issues. Any many times I’ve seen one of those sides, who become tired of always coming out on the losing end, suddenly coalescing into a mighty force in which they throw out those currently running things — be they pro-developers or pro-neighborhood — and replace them with those who will vote the opposite point of view.

I have lived in Kyle long enough now (granted, that’s all of three months) to realize the powers-that-be here are pro-developer, especially those seven individuals serving on the Planning & Zoning Commission. Tonight’s commission meeting was a perfect example of that. Two different developers, who probably are in cahoots (and I’ll tell you why in a second) sought the commission’s approval to rezone two adjacent plots of land on Goforth Road across from Lehman High School from Agriculture to one that would allow them to build one of those mini-strip malls. The reason I’m convinced they are in cahoots is that they appear to want to develop the two separate properties into one mall. A couple of folks from an adjacent subdivision, Southlake Ranch, took the time to come to the commission with a legitimate gripe. If you look at this map of the area, the subdivision in question is bounded roughly by Onyx Lake Drive on the west, Sapphire Lake Drive and Spillway Drive on the east and Goforth on the south. There is no northern egress from the division; Goforth provides the only access residents have to the rest of the world. The problem is there are only two links to Goforth, one the Sapphire Lake Drive eastern border and the other two blocks west at Lake Washington Drive. That leaves four additional blocks to the west where residents must use Lake Washington to get in or out of the subdivision. Onyx Lake comes oh so close to joining up with Goforth, stopping what looks like about a quarter of a mile, perhaps less. Not only would extending Oynx Lake to Goforth make sense for public safety as well as residential convenience reasons, it would also become an extension of and provide direct access to Lehman Road.

One of the residents of that subdivision, Debra Britt, told the commission "It was our understanding" and "we were led to believe" it was possible that Oynx Lake Road would be extended to Goforth. In other words, she and a couple of her neighbors probably talked to someone in City Hall who told her "Sure, sure, be a good girl now and go home and we’ll look into it" and we all know what that means and where that leads. Britt told the commission that last year a "rollover" occurred on Lake Washington Drive that blocked that access to Goforth so all the residents had to go to the street on the eastern edge of the subdivision before they could finally begin traveling west to get to wherever they needed to go, (This is just I guess, but I would be willing to bet big bucks that at least 95 percent of all drivers traveling on Lake Washington Drive turn right on Goforth.) Ms. Britt said there are 359 homes in the Southlake Ranch subdivision and when this particular incident occurred, the residents of 79 of those homes could get out via Lake Washington but those living in other 280 homes "could not leave the subdivision."

But because this is a pro-developer, anti-existing neighborhoods planning and zoning commission, it promptly voted 6-1 to approve the zoning change. But wait, you may be shouting, at least there’s one pro-existing neighborhood voice on the commission. How else do you account for that one nay vote? Well, not exactly. Commissioner Mike Wilson cast the lone vote against the zoning change but not because he favored extending Oynx Lake Road through the 1-acre 1435 Goforth property; he simply wanted a slightly more restrictive commercial zoning in place. He told me after the meeting that, for all practical purposes, those living in Southlake Ranch would much prefer having their access blocked by something like a beauty salon than something far more onerous like, for instance, a gas station. That’s not exactly my definition of an existing-neighborhood activist, but everyone else is free to draw their own conclusions.