Council Members React To Town Center Drawings: ‘This Went Way Beyond’

UPDATED
City Council members said in a series of public documents, which were released to InstantNewsWestU by the city, that the West U Town Center committee “went way beyond” what was asked of them in regards to developing town center drawings.
InstantNewsWestU recently received more than 200 documents from the city, which were obtained from two public information requests that were filed on Oct. 6 and Oct. 29.
InstantNewsWestU first reported the committee’s plans of a three-story structure, lining Edloe Street and University Boulevard, on Oct. 5.
The story was based on an e-mail that was sent to West U Town Center Committee members, City Planner Debbie Scarcella and Assistant City Manager Chris Peifer on Sept. 15. The email was also forwarded to city council by City Manager Michael Ross.
“FYI… They may be getting a little carried away… Chris will be attending tonight’s meeting,” Ross said in his e-mail to council.
Ross then sent an e-mail to Town Center Committee Chair Bruce Frankel, letting him know that he had forwarded the drawings to council.
“FYI… Just a heads up. I shared the architectural drawing with Council. You guys may want to consider getting back to the basics of just creating a zoning district where you lay out the heights, setbacks, etc… and let the more detailed architectural aspects happen naturally,” Ross said in his e-mail. “You can of course recommend that Council consider adding more restrictions but you might want to have a simpler fallback in mind for the joint Council/ZPC meeting.”
Mayor Bob Kelly appeared to be surprised by the drawings and sent this e-mail to Ross on Sept. 16:
“If you thought Vision 20/20 created a blood bath, wait till word of this concept hits the street. Wow, is all I can say.”
The story, which was published on InstantNewsWestU on Oct. 5, generated 43 comments from the public.
On Oct. 6, Councilmember Steven Segal responded to an e-mail from a resident with questions about the town center drawings.
“Council appointed the committee to consider zoning changes that would facilitate redevelopment by the owners of the properties. That is parking, set back, etc,” Segal said in his reply. “This went way beyond.”
The story also brought forth a phone call to InstantNewsWestU from Frankel on Oct. 6, who demanded to know how the news organization got the documents. Frankel asked that the story be removed from the website for “inaccuracies,” but he was unable to provide what the inaccuracies were in the story.
On Oct. 13, Frankel sent an e-mail to town center committee members, letting them know that they would discuss the story at their next meeting.
“Spend about 5-10 minutes talking about that ridiculous article published on the InstantWestUNews website. I don’t want to spend too much time and energy on this topic this because any time we do spend talking about this garbage is a waste of our time! However, I understand that many of you are as angry about the misrepresentation of our committee and the work we are doing and would like to talk about it, Frankel said in his e-mail. “Good News – An article is being published in today’s Examiner as a follow up to the InstantWestUNews story. Steve Mark contacted Mike Ross and I for information on the story. Steve Mark is a very fair and accurate reporter. I am confident that Steve’s article will set the record straight about the mission of this committee and put our community at ease. The Village News contacted me yesterday and will publish a subsequent article next week.”
The Village News reported this headline on the front page of its Oct. 19 edition: “Phony Plan Draws Residents’ Fire As Town Center Report Nears.”
The Village News reported that Frankel said “it was not the committee’s mission to suggest redevelopment ideas or plans.”
Council made it clear during its Oct. 25 meeting that the plans for the Town Center are not “phony” and said that it was never the council’s intent for the committee to develop plans.
Frankel was asked to come forward during the Oct. 25 council meeting. Kelly asked Frankel out of the three news outlets who reported the story, InstantNewsWestU, The Examiner and Village News, who wrote the most accurate story.
Frankel said the Village News was the most accurate.
On Oct. 28, Kelly sent an e-mail to Segal suggesting that he and Councilmember George Boehme meet with the committee to determine if “any additional direction is needed from council.”
Segal responded and said that he thought it would be better to have a workshop item and invite the committee to get a feel for what council wants.
“I agree as to a public meeting if they feel they need more direction….but to determine if they do want more direction, I was just thinking that a Council member may want to talk to them,” Kelly said in his reply. “Doesn’t really matter to me.”
Segal replied with this e-mail:
“I don’t think the issue is whether they think they need direction-it’s whether we – council– want to make sure they take the right road. Do they know what we asked and want them to do? I am not sure they are. Are you?” he said to Kelly. “Consider a 30 min workshop before one of our November meetings and invite the ad hoc town committee to attend. We can discuss and clarify what council wants and expects at this time. We can redirect their attention and focus (hopefully).”
The Town Center Committee was scheduled to present its plans in a joint meeting with council and the Zoning and Planning Commission on Nov. 15, but will now be presenting its plans sometime in January.