Austinist: Copasetic Conclusion to Concodia Controversy

M1EK

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:30:27 -0600

Dobie, I've never been paid a dollar by anybody for blogging or commenting anywhere. Asshole.

Dobie Gillis

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:17:02 -0600

M1EK, All over town, you can read M1EK write essentially the same thing. You gotta admit, he really works hard to earn his check as a paid Wal-Mart Blogger as he spreads disinformation about Northcross. I can hardly wait to see him apologize when the residents win and he has to get a real job.

AC

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:59:38 -0600

Making developers pay for neighborhood association attorneys is a bad idea. It increases the neighborhoods' incentive to contest relatively insignificant details, and reduces the cost of intransigence. Both sides need an incentive to be reasonable. Neighborhoods are quite capable of coming up with the resources to oppose projects when they really want to.

M1EK

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:33:06 -0600

Really important to distinguish further (you touched on this): Concordia project: Developer needed approval to change zoning to allow for much more height/density than would have been allowed under pre-existing zoning. Neighbors operated in spirit of compromise; attempting to shift height around (and in many cases lessen height) but basically resigned to the project happening one way or another. Northcross: Developer doesn't need any additional approvals; they're only building about 1/3 of the maximum allowed retail space they actually could build under current zoning. Neighbors have provided no room for negotiations, and have instead hysterically shrieked about one particular tenant, and threatened to sue everybody within range.