Numerous residents and West University Elementary School students spoke out against the proposed town center zoning ordinance during Monday’s city council meeting.
Council was expected to vote on the second reading of the town center zoning ordinance, but Mayor Bob Fry asked City Manager Michael Ross to remove it from the agenda.
The decision to remove the proposal from the agenda came after the city council received more than 200 petition letters through a new website called “StopWestUGalleria.com.”
Fry said he received many thoughtful comments from residents last week and knew that there needed to be more education about the changes.
“I still think it’s a good piece of work,” Fry said about the zoning ordinance.
While a vote was not taken on the town center zoning ordinance Monday night, council was treated to an almost full council chamber and heard from several residents who had concerns about the proposal.
Applause often filled the room after each person spoke.
“When I read the proposal that was circulated last week I almost fell out of my chair,” Sunset resident Anne Burke said. “You’re giving those property owners everything.”
Burke is a real estate lawyer and deals with buying and selling shopping centers.
In her experience, she said she has never had a shopping center go through a catastrophe. When you have a catastrophe, then you rezone, she said.
“This has nothing to do with a catastrophe,” Burke said. “This is about development.”
Oberlin resident Herbert Cull told council that he was concerned to read about city funding of a parking garage and several members on council responded saying, “So were we.”
Dr. Edwin Wood, a Tangley resident, has an office on University and said that it’s peaceful except at 8 a.m., noon and 3:15 p.m. At those times the traffic is “indescribable,” he said.
Wood told council he would hate to see more commercial businesses moved into the area, but could understand why developers would want to develop it.
Council also heard from two fifth graders at West U Elementary School who were joined by five of their classmates.
Abby Boyce and Audrey Mills told council that they had gotten their classmates and teachers to sign a petition when they found out that Edloe Street was going to be torn down and a shopping center was going to take its place.
“Ninety-nine point nine percent of the people I know don’t want a giant shopping center,” Boyce said. “West U needs an Edloe Street not a galleria.”
Boyce also said that bringing a shopping center into “our little town” would increase traffic.
Mills told council that if a shopping center was built in West U a lot of people they didn’t know would come into the neighborhood.
“If Edloe was gone, it just wouldn’t be right,” Mills said.
Janine Schueppert, a Riley Street resident and member of the West U Elementary PTO, told council that she has read the report and questioned why some of the plats will lose square footage and some will get more than they have now.
“I’m really concerned about this development,” she said. “We’ll lose the small town feel that we all moved here for.”
Schueppert said the enrollment at WUES is at a record high, which already increases traffic. She said teachers have to drive around and around the block because they can’t find a spot to park and the tardy line is out the door because parents can’t find a place to park when they drop their kids off at school.
“We have a parking problem,” she said. “Let’s not make it worse.”
Steve McGough, a Robinhood resident, thanked council for taking the time to have a consultation about the proposal.
“You certainly should put this to a public vote,” he said. “The last thing we need is more shops … and more chaos.”
Vernon Tyger, who owns property on Wroxton Street and created the Website “StopWestUGalleria.com,” recognized the students who started their own petition and thanked all the council members who took the time to listen to the resident’s concerns.
Councilwoman Joan Johnson addressed the city subsidized parking lot and said that it was in the ad hoc committee’s report but it was never discussed by council and it was not included in the zoning ordinance.
Mayor Pro Tem Susan Sample and Councilman Ed Heathcott both thanked everyone who came out and voiced their concerns.
“I think we’ll have an improved ordinance at the end of the day,” Heathcott said.
Council directed city staff in September to budget $60,000 for a non-residential zoning study for the commercial areas in the city and asked that the town center be rolled into the project.
After hearing positive feedback from residents and property owners during a public hearing on Nov. 7, council decided to move forward with the proposal.
Council is now expected to consider the town center zoning proposal with the non-residential zoning study later this year.
This is a letter I just sent to Mr. Fry, following last night’s meeting:
Dear Mr. Fry,
I attended the meeting last night where my daughter, Audrey, spoke out in favor of preserving Edloe Street. During the meeting and in letters regarding the Town Center controversy, you talked about the lack of opposition until now. I’d wish I had signed up to speak about that issue. You are not getting opposition due to misleading information on the Stop West U Galleria website. There has been silent opposition all along, it is just that someone finally took advantage of social media to organize it.
When the proposed ordinance first came out last year, I was aghast. I talked to many, many friends about it who were also aghast. I even went to Edloe St. and began asking the tenants if they had been informed and they were all just as surprised and less than pleased. One told me not to worry because the property owners would never all agree to sell collectively.
Why didn’t we come to the meetings or write letters, you probably wonder. I believe it’s because we truly didn’t think it would ever get this far. Perhaps that was denial. When I spoke to a neighbor who is connected socially to former city councilmen who are “in the know”, he told me he was also furious, but not to worry because this would never pass. In the meantime, since we all have children in elementary school and are usually playing cook or chauffeur during the 6:30 council meeting time slot (husbands aren’t the most reliable babysitters), my friends and I simply had to trust that things would work themselves out. I even thought abut writing a letter, but didn’t want to be labeled a loony. That appears to have been a mistake, but hopefully one that won’t be repeated.
I’m so proud of my daughter for having the courage and tenacity to organize the petition and risk a mountain of homework at 7:30 pm to speak at the meeting. It was completely her idea, as I was more afraid of Mt. Homework.
Please understand that there has always been opposition to this, it has just been hidden under naïveté and trust that this ordinance would not come this far. I couldn’t help but think that Ms. Burke, the real estate attorney who spoke first, had some of the most compelling reasons for why this zoning change should not be considered in any form. It is simply inviting development, it is not essential that we do this before a catastrophic loss.
Great to hear all this progress, but I fear (as most things happen in West University) that all of our uproar will get swept away in 8 months or 14 months or 21 months. There are powerful people in West University that want this to happen, they want that area developed and it will be developed. Mr. Fry knows this and he’s trying to save face and address some of the big issues on the surface. Someone said it in a comment earlier: once the zoning is changed, property values will start to go up and these businesses will be forced out. The change in zoning is, in effect, incentive to tear down the buildings, catastrophe or not.
As citizens of West U, we need to keep this issue in the spot light. Now, next week, next year. When we aren’t looking or have our guard down someone will try and get this passed, there will simply be too much money at stake. Remember this when we vote in a new mayor and new council. Who stood on what side of that zoning thing back in 2012? This is the type of issue that define our city and make it the place where we want to live. If we wanted mixed use and heavy commercial, there are plenty of houses for sale off of Greenbriar, Westheimer, The Heights, and Montrose.
I’ve come around to believing that the redevelopment would not be in the best interests of the city. If it ain’t broke….
HOWEVER — tenants in the commercial buildings on Edloe are already facing massive issues. The Artists in the Round group (Linda Lowe’s wonderful organization) that has occupied the upper level of the corner building at University/Edloe just had to massively downsize their space, including giving up precious artifacts from their many decades to local museums and residents, because rent has tripled or more. If anyone has seen their space they know that they weren’t paying for luxury — this is a building that would greatly benefit from being rebuilt. Same goes for other offices/shops there. For a town center, this collection of buildings is incredibly bland and non-descript. We’d benefit from unification of the block and some thoughtful planning, but at the end of the day, it could be a lot worse. Let’s leave it alone and wait for time/age to create that moment when there will be no other option but to rip and replace.
Amen…thanks to all who took their time to protest this…the worst thing to do is to stay ‘silently in opposition’!!! Those who are speaking out for the community against this development are REAL HEROES!!