CITY COUNCIL MEETING: Another land grab scheme?

COLUMBIA, 12/6/09 (Beat Bytes) --  Along with reviewing utility disconnection policies, the Columbia City Council will take up the troubling way city-provided home loans for energy efficiency can't be subordinated to other loans or liens at its pre-council meeting tomorrow. 

 

A recent letter from reader Kay Callison put the problem in perspective.  Trying to refinance her home with the city loan and the lien it creates has been a "nightmare" Callison told the Heart Beat.  The city essentially comes first, something no bank will tolerate and a rare practice among home improvement lenders.  

 

At first read, the program sounds like yet another way City Hall can get land on the cheap, first enticing unsuspecting homeowners to take the low-interest loans; and then turning the loans into a cudgel -- an old boy practice city managers and mayors of yore used on the black community.   

 

I may be wrong, and I'm sorry if this sounds harsh.  But this year's eminent domain disaster downtown has robbed me of trust for city management on or about private property -- unless that property belongs to someone big enough to fight back.   

 

Dec. 7  Pre Council Agenda

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/webcal/view_entry.php?id=377

 

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FOR TOMORROW'S COUNCIL MEETING

 

At their regular meeting tomorrow, council members will undoubtedly vote to add even more units to an already overcrowded development on Old Plank and Bethel Church Road area in South Columbia.  

 

Ordinance B313-09 allows 90 units (up from 85) including 40 duplexes, on 13 acres, taking the existing development density from roughly 6 dwellings per acre to 7 dwellings per acre.  Look just north, if you want to see the dramatic, crime-ridden effects of over-densified rentals on Columbia and the surrounding community.   And drive around the Bethel/Old Plank development referenced here if you want to see "crammed in like sardines" or "thirty pounds of feed in a 20 pound sack" given new meaning.   Other agenda items include:

 

B351-09 Downtown safety cameras. 

 

B352-09 Calling a special election Tuesday, April 6, 2010:  downtown safety camera ordinance. 

 

B337-09  Stimulus Funding for the construction of sidewalks on Walnut Street, Anthony Street and Paquin Street. 

 

B350-09 Amending the FY 2010 Annual Budget and the Classification Plan and Pay Plan to establish the position of Trust Specialist in the Office of Neighborhood Services; appropriating funds.  [$77,000 to hire a new staffer in these tight times.]

 

B338-09 Adopting the Northeast Columbia Area Plan, a supplement to the Metro 2020 Plan.  Supporting Documentation 

 

B340-09  Rezoning property located south of Heller Road and west of Rogers Road from agricultural to industrial. http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/feb/10/developer-eyes-site/

 

B343-09  Authorizing sidewalk/pedway along Stadium Boulevard from Providence Road to College Avenue

 

B347-09 Amending Chapter 16 of the City Code to provide a limited exemption from the noise regulations for junior high school marching bands. 

 

CITY COUNCIL FULL AGENDA:

http://gocolumbiamo.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=141