Planning Commission – LIVE! (2/9/2015)

Well, it was supposed to be LIVE! coverage but we had technical difficulties. Oh well. Let’s see what happened with Keith Walden’s Stewart St. apartment project as the Planning Commission meets.

This is Harold Garrison’s first meeting as the newest member of the Planning Commission. We start with a request to consolidate four lots on Arnett Blvd. into one large parcel. This is the office building to the south of the URW Credit Union location. This passes with no problems easily. Next, we move to Keith Walden’s Stewart St. apartment plans. This is his 2nd trip before the Planning Commission as Danville City Council remanded it back due to neighbor’s concerns.

Here’s the conceptual plan of the street’s development.

Walden makes his case yet again, and Melanie Vaughan (the most vocal opponent at the city council hearing) pretty much folds her hand. It looks like Walden’s reaching out has gotten her grudging approval. Shelby Clark still opposes the plan but goes way off the rails when she says her Montague St. house will be undesirable and lose value because of the apartment building behind her house. She overplays her hand horribly bad and her concerns are noted but rightfully disregarded. After the meeting, Chairman Michael Scearce tried to explain to her that her house’s value wouldn’t be affected by that but she continued to believe it. I mean, really… what does Michael Scearce know about real estate valuations? He’s only been in the real estate business for 40+ years. Jeez.

The other part of the previous objections was about the Stewart St. traffic that would probably go down Montague St. instead. Those objections said Stewart St. had a lot of traffic, but a traffic count survey showed a whopping average of 132 cars per day. That blew up the traffic objections and the Planning Commission voted 7-0 to pass all the items needed. Walden should have no problem getting this through City Council.

Keith Walden did the talking today instead of Gus Dyer and that really helped his case. Dyer does get up to address Clark’s concerns of mosquito breeding and I started to cringe. I described him getting up after winning the case as “Hitting on 19 at a blackjack table”. It’s all good though and nothing changes.

And we’re done! We’ve got more coming up on SouthsideCentral!