At the September 23, 2024, meeting, the Richardson City Council approved by a vote of 4-3 a request by Clay Cooley Volkswagen to add a repair shop, a body shop, and a vehicle storage lot on their property in the Interurban District. This is the district Richardson once envisioned as an "edgy, mixed-use district built upon the existing bones of the district, focusing on adaptive reuse of existing buildings and targeted infill development." We are now faced with admitting that the Interurban District would have been better named the "Car Lots and Repair Shops District."
Councilmember Jennifer Justice took a risk-averse, lawyerly view of the case. Her argument was that the law allows for special use permits, so there's no reason not to grant them. This argument was also made by Mayor Bob Dubey. He added, "I don't think anybody on our council wants and supports vacant buildings." Obviously no one wants that. It's a straw man argument. It's also defeatist thinking. Richardson deserves better than a Clay Cooley VW body shop. We ought to strive for better. What we need on Richardson's City Council are a few more visionary thinkers. We developed a good Plan. The Council as a whole only lacks the fortitude to stick to the Plan. That's not the Richardson Way, no matter how much they wave that banner.
In opposition to others' defeatist thinking, Councilmember Dan Barrios best expressed an optimistic, can-do attitude. He agreed with the Mayor that "None of us want empty buildings...but we also need to have some kind of, I guess, pride that we just don't give it to the first person that comes through that door. And, you know, that's something I think is a personal value. You know, something as a parent, I try to teach my own son and say, You've got to value who you are. And I think right now, we've got to ask ourselves who we are, and do we have values? Do we value ourselves as a community, as a city, to hold out to see what we can become, versus just giving in to the first special permit that comes to us in this area."
Some of Justice's other arguments are just plain irrelevant. Maybe she raised them because she recognized that her main, risk-averse, lawyerly arguments were defeatist. A commercial antenna would be allowed by right. Maybe, but so what? She pointed out that a food truck park would also need a special use permit. Again, so what? She said the original study recognized a future need for public parking if demand emerges. Again, so what? She said downtown Plano has auto-centric uses. So is she saying that a Clay Cooley VW body shop might make Richardson more like downtown Plano? Really? Count how many body shops, garages, brake stores, car rentals, trailer rentals, dent repair shops, and used car dealers are already in the Interurban District. Still more won't make the area more like downtown Plano. The vision was to evolve Richardson away from that, not cement it in place as the "Car Repair District" for another fifty years. Yet that's what four members of the City Council just did, including Justice, Mayor Dubey, Curtis Dorian, and Ken Hutchenrider.
Kudos to Barrios, Councilmember Joe Corcoran, and Mayor Pro Tem Arefin for voting against this reversal of Richardson's vision for redevelopment and growth.
A famous quote by William F. Buckley goes, "I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty." A City of Richardson corollary might be, "I'd rather have the City Council be made up of seven random speakers during the public comment portion of a City Council meeting than by the seven Councilmembers sitting on the dais."
As a test of that, here is the testimony of some of the public speakers Monday night. I think the wisdom of the average member of the public holds up well in Richardson.
Justin Neth:
The Interurban became a vital link for communities until the popularity of the automobile caused a decline. That's a quote from the Core District website describing the detrimental impact of the automotive industry on the Interurban railway-connected communities 116 years ago. 116 years later, we are still here discussing the impact of the automotive industry on this area. Today's Interurban subdistrict still seeks to be a vital link for our Richardson community and neighbors, and we still have a railway with the Dart line running through, and now we're planning to install a $5.2 million open space to increase the pedestrian-oriented, eclectic nature of this area. The Core district website also highlights over 100 businesses that are making this area what we want it to be. These include fashion boutiques, breweries, coffee shops and so many others. All pretty eclectic, if you ask me, all businesses that need this Council's support to ensure longevity and success. As the staff report says, the vision for this sub district is to create a vibrant, mixed-use district at the heart of the city, which focuses on supporting infill development to create an address of the region via a pedestrian-oriented, more walkable environment. I want to remind you what it took for that vision to be formed and to begin its implementation. Do you know how many meetings were held with stakeholders, with property owners, with neighborhood leaders, with the public at large in developing the strategy for the Main Street/Central Expressway redevelopment project. Do you know how much money we spent on the three consultants, Jacobs, Kimley-Horn and Strategic Community Solutions? Do you know what it's taken to plan for future generations, to plan our work? By my count, according to the city's website, over 58 different meetings and presentations were held from 2012 to 2016. Do you realize how big of a waste it would be to throw all of that away and refuse to work our plan? I'm honored to be able to participate in this year's Cares program. We learn a lot about this city and how we do things. We learn about the Richardson Way. We plan for future generations. Now a generation is about 20 years. It's only been 15 years since the last Comprehensive Plan update, and it's only been eight years since the plans for this Main Street/Central Expressway District were finalized. As I mentioned before, the community put a lot of work into these plans. Maybe some of you put a lot of work into these plans. To suggest that we have given this an honest chance to become reality and it simply hasn't become what we were hoping is a solemn mistake. To say that nothing has happened, that just isn't true. So much has happened just in this last month, and you, the seven of you tonight, are the only seven people in the world who get to decide if we work our plan. We plan for future generations, we plan our work, and we work our plan. That is the Richardson Way. Some of you understand this based on the way you voted on similar cases. I want to highlight one of those cases and remind some of you of your decisions that put us where we are today. On June 13, 2022, Clay Cooley requested to expand the area where they could display, store, and work on vehicles. Some of you saw that this was counter to the plans the community has for this area. Here's a quote that I hope will remind you. "I understand there are a lot of car dealerships there, but at some point, in many different areas, we've put a stake in the ground to say that we're trying to move and change things, maybe at a glacial pace, but we've certainly done that. So I do agree with the concerns about trying to make it be the right fit into the area." That's a direct quote from Councilman Hutchenrider on June 13, 2022, right around the three hour 10 minute mark. Clay Cooley's request that day was approved five to two with the brave Councilmembers Corcoran and Hutchenrider, understanding the plan and voting against the request, denying a request that goes against the city's plan. It's business friendly. It is pro business. It is the Richardson Way. We here in Richardson do not work this hard to plan our work, just to not work our plan. Please, for future generations of Richardson, deny this request, deny Zoning File 24-16 with prejudice. Thank you, Council for doing things the Richardson Way.Source: Justin Neth.
Pam Thompson:
We say that we want to be a city where people can walk or bike to cool things our city has to offer, and then we make decisions that are downright hostile to pedestrians and cyclists. We did this when we said we were building a pedestrian friendly downtown, and then we widened the lanes and we increased the turn radii. We straightened Belt Line. We demolished the buildings at the northwest corner of Belt Line and Greenville. All of this makes it easier for people to drive through our city rather than to stay in our city and spend money here. Clay Cooley is asking us to choose cars over people again. Belt&Main is leasing. We're building in our Urban Commons. We're building new streets with wide sidewalks in the Interurban District. With Belt&Main, we negotiated hundreds of parking spaces in the ground floor of the parking garage that people from all over the Metroplex can park and walk and spend money at all of these businesses in our Core. It's just under half a mile, or a 10 minute walk from Belt&Main, straight up Interurban to Four Bullets, but few people are going to park at Belt&Main and walk north past a giant car lot and auto body repair shop and auto paint booth with fumes, particularly when it is poorly maintained, as Clay Cooley's current site is, although a previous council directed staff way back in 2016 to allow auto-oriented uses to continue under the special permit process that council specifically did not direct staff to make these uses allowable by right. Special permit regulations in the city code state that some uses are not allowed except by special permit, and all special permits automatically terminate upon expiration of the time period, a change in ownership or operator or a change in business name. The key thing that's been skipped over a bit here is that these special permits are designed to allow existing businesses to continue until they close up shop. Which classic BMW did. They're not intended to allow a use to continue in perpetuity, particularly where the use is incompatible with the vision of the Council adopted PD. Auto body repair shops and vehicle storage parts shops and auto detailing don't support pedestrian connectivity. They don't support a vibrant, eclectic, mixed use neighborhood. It's hard to imagine sitting on a nice patio across the street from a tire stop. Imagine walking along Interurban with the noise of power tools across the street. Council has said that it wants to be business friendly, but this set of auto-oriented uses drives a wedge deep into the middle of our burgeoning Core, particularly with this operator who can't manage to maintain his landscaping, let alone his windows or his fencing or any other aspect of this site. If you've driven by, you'll see you a map in front of you in your packets with over 100 businesses that are in compliance with this code. These businesses have received dozens of "Best of" awards from the Dallas Observer. Over the years, they are thriving small businesses that are providing terrific places for us to eat and shop and hang out and get to know our neighbors. They also happen to be producing a great deal more property tax on a per square foot basis on land than the auto lots do. During the August Council meeting, we learned that Clay Cooley's representative told staff that they would ask their customers to drop cars off at the various dealerships around the Metroplex. So no customers are coming here to this location with this request. No one from Clay Cooley is going to drop off their car and then walk over to Eiland coffee or Four Bullets or take a quick walk into downtown. In my business, we talk about economic development opportunities, including direct, indirect and induced impacts. In this case, this auto body shop and file storage area are creating direct impacts and sales and a minimal bump in property tax, but almost no other businesses, no other benefits to businesses around the Core or even around town. So this auto body shop, which is going to draw broken cars and their tow trucks and vehicle haulers from all over the Metroplex, is going to ruin the future walkability of Interurban, destroy our credibility as a city, because apparently, quote, Council adopted vision, unquote, doesn't have any staying power and not result in any benefits to its neighbors. Everyone knows that the future of this district is not auto body repair shops and paint fumes, but rather arts and culture and food and music and gathering places. As you weigh your choices tonight and you try to decide between an already wealthy dude who lives and pays taxes over in Dallas and a small group of committed Richardson residents and voters who would like you to make a well-reasoned land use decision here, I'd like to remind you that Margaret Mead said, "Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." Please support the over 100 businesses that are already bringing this plan and the Richardson Core to life. Please vote to be true to the Council adopted vision of this district. Please vote to deny Zoning File 24-16.Source: Pam Thompson.
Mark Baustian:
I would like to have you turn down this agenda item, and I'll tell you why. It's the Richardson Way. Plan our Work and then Work our Plan. We've got a plan in place to make this a cultural district, but I'm thinking we are changing some things on the businesses that have already invested, and that's what concerns me. Are we going to change the rules after they've invested? And I'm not sure about that. It's just my opinion, they may go to another town. So what I'd like you to do is just close your eyes for a second. Pretend you're walking through downtown Plano...Nobody closed their eyes. Okay, let's try walking through downtown Garland. What do you see? You see a series of business after business after business, all small businesses. What you don't see is grocery stores, Walmart, Targets, dealerships, because you can walk from one to the next. And the seriousness of this is that auto dealerships are big, long-term investments. For example, ever since we've been here, there's been a Chevy dealer at 75 and Arapaho. That's 44 years. Do we want to set back our goal of having a cultural sub district by 40 to 50 years?Source: Mark Baustian.
Theresa Douglas:
My husband, Jeff, is the founder and majority owner of Four Bullets Brewery on Interurban. I'm here to ask you all to please vote no to the proposal ZF 24-16. I'm in the current Richardson Cares class. In the first class, the City Manager mentioned that the City Council's members change every couple of years. Each new council reviews the previous visions for the city. New councils may tweak those visions, but they do not change them. We don't view this as a tweak, but a major overhaul. We see it as abandoning agreements with stakeholders and business owners, and let me tell you why. 10 or 11 years ago, we brought our proposal to the city to open a small Mom and Pop brewery. The entire City Council was as excited as we were. We got a resounding yes from every person on the Council. They told us we were exactly what they were looking for on Interurban, how we fit perfectly into their vision, eclectic, funky, urban, artsy vibe. And as you guys say, we planned our work, and we worked our plan. We have 100% lived up to our end of the deal, and expect that this Council will, too, by voting no to this proposal. If you allow this, your vision has changed, and we need to know if our brewery is still part of that vision. I'd like to address a comment that was made a month or so ago in a council meeting regarding Four Bullets not doing anything to update the front of our building or landscaping, during our presentation to the City Council. Ten plus years ago we showed a slide with a mock up with the front of our building, which, if you haven't seen it before, has beautiful brick on red, best brick building on the street. So anyway, we did a mock up for the front of the building to make it look current, with awnings, potted plants, updated landscaping in this tiny little patch of dirt we have. And I'll never forget, ever, a City Council person interrupted the presentation and said, hey, who told you you have to update the front of your building and make it look current, pretty? Because that's not the look we're going for. Again, our vision is edgy, eclectic. Think Deep Ellum. I don't think you need to change anything. Most members spoke up and agreed and no one disagreed. So from that day forward, we concentrated on making great beer, creating look and feel inside and in the back, making it an artsy, speak-easy-ish, homey community, a neighborhood gathering place, and that's exactly what it is today. If your vision has changed from that, nobody let us know. So if you've not been back to the brewery since opening day, or even in the last year, we invite you back to see what it is that we've become nine and a half years later. Again, 10 years ago, the vision we were told was eclectic, walkable restaurants, boutique shops and a park. Now a very large part of that vision will be taken up by another car business right in the middle of the street, cutting off one cool end of the street from the other, the Core district. Interurban revitalization is a topic of conversation in all of our meetings. Now that downtown is finished, once Belt&Main officially opens, once some great places open on Interurban, it will help us get to where we need to be to help us get over this hump. Now we're afraid that this proposal would kill us, and what you guys have already worked so hard on and done such a great job on, we need you to keep the original vision of Interurban alive. We are the epitome of a small business. We all still have full time jobs. It's a true labor of love. Four Bullets Brewery is a very important part of Richardson. We are ingrained into this community. We have local music, art shows, birthdays, celebrations of lives, weddings. We support all of Richardson's nonprofit schools, church communities by donating beer, merchandise, time for all of their fundraising events. We were led to believe Interurban would be filled with small businesses just like us who are part of this community and contribute to this community. Voting for this proposal is not business-friendly or even community-friendly. We're afraid of this change in the City Council's vision for Interurban and how it will affect Four Bullets and other small businesses in the area. Again, this is not a tweak in the vision, but a major overhaul. Please vote no to the proposition. I would really like to hear from each of you, individually or as a group, to understand the city's new vision for Interurban and how it includes, or if it includes, Four Bullets.Source: Theresa Douglas.
Julie Robinson:
As a Richardson Core District business owner, also a long time business resident and a member of the Richardson Core District Merchants Association, we are strongly opposed to the zoning change for an overflow vehicle storage area and repair facility in the Interurban Core district. This would be detrimental to the overall health of the Core District, as well as a serious break from the Comprehensive Plan to create and build upon a thriving entertainment and cultural district, something that neighboring cities like Garland, Plano, and McKinney have been very successful in achieving. And I feel that we're getting closer and closer to being able to achieve this eventually. The Core district is just beginning to see the fruits of this plan start to bloom, and that includes six Core District businesses who recently won a Dallas Observer "Best of" award, which is something to be proud of. There are also exciting initiatives happening in the Core right now, like placemaking signage and a brand new shuttle service from UTD to each of the Core District neighborhoods, and in a very short time, we'll have hundreds of new neighbors moving into Belt&Main, creating more urban density and foot traffic in the Core. We must stay focused on the set plan to achieve our civic and community's shared goal to make the Core District a cultural, creative and unique, revenue-generating entertainment destination. So to allow a giant car storage and maintenance facility in the Core District is really tantamount to putting one up in the Dallas Design District. And my husband and I sought out Richardson over 20 years ago, and we made it our home. We're raising our family here now. We founded businesses here in the city because of Richardson's unique qualities and culture. Don't homogenize and stunt the growth of what could become a thriving district. Stay the course of the original plan to see it through and bring more culture into the Core.Source: Julie Robinson.
Andrew Laska:
There was one speaker, Andrew Laska, who I've chosen not to transcribe his presentation (you can watch him using the same link I've used for all the other speakers). Instead, I want to link to Laska's own blog, Richardson Echo, where he goes into much more detail in his article, "Blurry Vision: Toward Informed Visions in Richardson’s Planning". Here is just a sample of his introduction:
A repeating pattern has emerged. A pattern repeated so much that it should now be considered adopted city policy. That new implicit policy is that our mutually agreed upon and adopted visions, plans, and zoning should be abandoned and altered whenever a developer asks for an exception. This policy stance was never announced or vetted by the council or the general public. I think this is dangerous to the future success of the City. I want to address why I think it happens.Source: Andrew Laska.
There were other speakers, but in the interest of cutting short an already too long post, I won't transcribe their remarks, but all are worth listening to.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.
Considering the 4-3 vote on this Clay Cooley Volkswagen zoning file, I would consider supporting any of the members of the public who spoke against this proposal if they decided to run for City Council themselves. Seriously. There's a municipal election coming up in May, 2025. There's always a need for informed, dedicated, public servants. If that's you, let's have coffee and talk it over.
"Plan the work you must.
Work the plan with steady trust.
Mural? A bad trade."
—h/t ChatGPT
See also "Volkswagen: About that Mural".
No comments:
Post a Comment