Perhaps the Planning and Zoning Commission receives more information than those of us the city may intentionally want to keep in the dark. As everyone knows all too well, a little bit of information can be terribly dangerous and there’s some governments that want to be as transparent as Saran Wrap and others, like Kyle, that try to be more like Reynolds Wax Paper.
The reason I mention this is that there are two applicants coming before the Planning & Zoning Commission Tuesday, hoping to persuade the commissioners to change the zoning on two, admittedly relatively small, parcels of land. In the first case, a Julieta Montes wants to get about a half acre of land located on the northwest corner of Burleson and North Street or the southwest corner of Burleson and Schlemmer Street, depending on your point of view, changed from single family zoning to neighborhood commercial. In the second, a Larry Hufford Jr., desires to get 2.6 acres of land on Goforth Road near Dacy changed from agricultural to construction manufacturing.
Both of the changes seem to me, at least, somewhat significant.
In the accompanying materials we humble citizens are permitted to see, there’s included a form called "Application & Check List – Zoning Change." The applicant has to complete this form and it includes a list of "required items for submittal package" and the applicant is supposed to check each one off to make sure his/her package is complete. One of the items to be checked and, obviously, must be included in the submittal package is an item called a "Letter explaining the reason for the request."
It sure would be nice to see this letter, but the city doesn’t include that in the materials it provides us. Maybe P&Z gets to see the letter. But I think the public should be able to see it as well. That way were not sitting around the campfire thinking of all the possible nefarious reasons the applicants might have to request the zoning change. We can actually see THE nefarious reason.
Why, you may be asking, should the city go to all this trouble just to satiate what some might consider my personal curiosity? It’s because each of these proposed zoning changes is accompanied on P&Z’s agenda by a Public Hearing and you’re going to have a far more knowledgeable public to speak at that hearing if they could see for themselves why the applicants want to change the zoning. Duh!
Of course, the truth may be the city is possibly purposely trying to keep citizens uninformed about what’s going on around them. Naw, the city wouldn’t do that. Would they?
Naw - the city would never do that..... James Earp would never do that. He's over the Planning Department. But I love that you hold these people to the fire. And YES - we need to see everything. And Wyatt Earp would agree. -- Lila Knight
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