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Real Name: Gretchen Wenner Address: 1707 Eye Street Bakersfield, CA 93301 Member Since: November 01, 2007 Last Signed In: November 18, 2009 Profile Views: 1858 Blog Views: 37788 Wednesday night meeting Bike riders: Watch for drilling rig on bike path! Canyons meeting under way... Bldrs Exchange drama... Recycling wackiness State's property values decline for first time since 1933... City seeking applicants for Board of Building Appeals Homebuilders v. city (and county): Latest buzz Council, Weds night: development "freeze?" Suing Bakersfield: Pork hits fan? And they're off! City Council seat beckons... November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 Get e-mail updates from this blog, and download to print on the go with the City Beat Printcast.
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Council, Weds night: development "freeze?"
It's almost time to start tonight's meeting.
Whether it becomes outwardly interesting depends on whether anyone says anything publicly...council members or citizens.
The hottest item, the homebuilders' lawsuit, is set for closed session.
If we're lucky someone will showboat a little and we'll get further insight into the standoff between the city and residential builders.
The Canyons is slated for a 3-week postponement along with 2 other projects. The council, in the meantime, will give city staff an indication of how to proceed with large projects impacted by the lawsuit. One observation: Councilmember Weir obviously hoped to devote whatever clout he could to help the Canyons project get approves. He shares the "property rights" outlook of project supporters. Now, obviously, tension between residential developers and his other big big backer, the Abernathy/Thomas machine, to whom he is (literally) deeply indebted, most likely means he'll have to support the traffic impact fee side of things. Any chance he'll break rank, or is that even possible for an Abernathy man? Councilmember Sue Benham is on vacation tonight; otherwise all are present.
-- Gretchen Wenner, staff writer
6 comments from 3 users
1
posted by
citybeat
on Aug 19, 2009 at 05:34 PM
William Lind of Bakersfield Tea Party spoke about a generalized opposition to the city having donated land for the downtown courthouse site, the "fraudulent stimulus bill," the city raising traffic impact fees during the recession.
And, inaccurately, he said Alan Tandy announced a development freeze in retaliation for the builders' lawsuit.
Not so. The council is debating response to the lawsuit in closed session tonight; Tandy has said large projects requiring general plan amendments and zone changes might have to be put on hold during litigation. The council will decide.
Another man, Josiah...not sure of last name...is speaking on a similar topic, saying the city should dump its redevelopment agency.
posted by
citybeat
on Aug 19, 2009 at 06:01 PM
No comments from public or council on postponing the Canyons and other projects.
They'll go to closed session next; it's unlikely anything said afterward will be noteworthy. They're also discussing Robbie Pratt in closed session. posted by
citybeat
on Aug 19, 2009 at 08:26 PM
It's getting close to 8:30 p.m. and they're still in closed session. That's more than 2 hours so far, most of it devoted to the homebuilders' lawsuit.
posted by
lindb
on Aug 19, 2009 at 10:04 PM
Gretchen, I got the info on the development freeze from your article on Aug 6: http://www.bakersfield.com/... so am I being inaccurate?
posted by
BreakingNewsTeam
on Aug 19, 2009 at 10:16 PM
Hi William-
Good q. The inaccuracy is that Tandy announced a freeze; he doesn't have that power (he also didn't use the word freeze or moratorium; builders and us reporters used that to describe his comments). The city council would have to approve some kind of agenda item for anything official to take place.
Whether the city takes some kind of official stance remains to be seen...they didn't expound after closed session. (Hopefully we'll find out soon!)
For now, this remains a fascinating thing to watch. I don't yet know if the city will have to adopt an official stance about processing general plan amendments/zone changes, or whether they can keep postponing projects as they come up, like they did tonight.
More questions ahead; thanks for your comments!
- Gretchen
posted by
lindb
on Aug 19, 2009 at 10:22 PM
Gretchen, Thanks for the clarification. stay on this story! Have a nice evening. Bill Lind
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