City Council met today at 10:30am and finished the vote to deny the zoning changes for CVS. OSHNA's representative at that meeting was Ann McDonald. She reports:
You will have seen and or heard that the vote was to DENY the CVS proposal. There was some impassioned discussion by council members and council legal.
Cathy Coyle did interject that if there were changes made to the current proposal it could be brought back without having to wait a year.
Someone had said, but I can find no confirmation in the Rules of Procedure for City Council, that there can be no communication with council members via phone or email once the public hearing portion has been closed. Our last minute calls and email may not have gotten to council members. Connie did get a call from Martin Shelby, Council Legal advisor - who noted the large volume of calls - it may have gotten to Gwen Miller as well - she gave the strongest plea to reopen the hearing.
You are hearing from me only now, because I have been engaged in lengthy discussion with representatives of Armstrong, their counsel, some of the sellers, and city zoning staff. It was very instructive! There are a number of things which could happen at this point. Some of them are:
- CVS could really throw up their hands and say "we're walking";
- CVS could conform to the Comp. Plan and bring the issue back for approval;
- CVS can apply for a plan under the current CI zoning and bring it back - there would be issues with that - but it is a possibility.
