Dear Editor,
Tuesday night, our city council voted to approve the changes in Code 405, the zoning ordinance of the city. I would like to express both my gratitude for and my deep disappointment with the
entire city council.
As a member of the public who has actually attended most of the recent council meetings, I can say from personal experience that I found members of the council courteous, willing to listen to my concerns, and willing to make changes based upon citizen input. Anyone who says otherwise simply has not been part of this process. As someone who was concerned about the affect the zoning changes would have on churches and private schools, I spoke to the council on numerous occasions, and was gratified to hear several of the most offensive parts of the bill amended.
Councilmen [Jeff] Werneke and [Warren] Langland were especially helpful in addressing a number of the concerns about the possible restrictive effect that the zoning changes would have
had on churches and private schools.
However, I am extremely disappointed with the council as a whole. As the bill stands, it effectively removes freedom from the hands of property owners and gives more power to the city staff — a staff who is not directly accountable to the voters of the city, and who may or may not be sympathetic to the needs or concerns of the citizens. The changes to Section 405 are not well suited to our city, and they were acted upon in a manner inconsistent with transparent governing.
There will be those who remark that the bill had been nearly a year in the making, and that is true.
Even so, not all the concerns of the citizens had been addressed, and that made this vote definitely premature. In a previous council meeting, I asked the council specific questions, which were echoed by a friend of mine. Neither of us received definitive answers. I was led to believe that my concerns had been addressed by a change which would be made to the bill prior to the vote. Those changes were not made, nor were they adequately discussed before the vote last night.
It is the city council and staff’s prerogative to amend legislation as they see fit — or not to amend it. The council cannot amend bills to suit every request. However, I do feel that this vote was rushed. There are still too many unanswered questions. This city council let us down by not ensuring that this bill was truly ready to become law.
I know that the council will be both criticized and thanked for the zoning changes. They deserve both. They deserve our thanks for nearly a year of hard, tedious work on a bill that they believe will help our city and for being open to citizen suggestions. However, the council rushed a vote on a bill that still needed some finishing work. Instead, they produced a deeply flawed law that will not serve our city well. For this, they justifiably deserve our deep disappointment and honest criticism.
Sincerely,
Matthew Prihoda,
Neosho
