Student Housing Nears the End Game

We've been following the long and winding road that one property owner has been walking in his attempt to get City of Richardson approval to build student housing just north of UT-Dallas. It's also just north of the soon-to-be-built DART Silver Line station. If there's any no-brainer zoning case I've seen in Richardson, it would be this one. I've heard the City brag about its commitment to DART and transit-oriented development, and its support of UT-Dallas. You'd think this project to provide private student housing near both DART and UT-Dallas would be a no-brainer for the City Plan Commission and the City Council as well. But so far, it's been less a no-brainer and more like no-way. Now, the quest is reaching its end game. The City Council will consider the request again September 27. 2021.

3rd Dispatch from the Chamber of Secrets

The Richardson City Council has been meeting in secret to set the council's vision, mission, goals, strategies, and tactics for its two-year term. In my two first dispatches, I covered the background of these meetings. This time, I'll finally get into the process the City Council is using to set its goals.

Selling Richardson a Biergarten

Richardson is getting two more drive-through restaurants, this time not on the east side, where a Salad And Go was recently approved, but on the west side. If the City Council approves, they'll go in Richardson Restaurant Park, the catalyst project for the redevelopment of the West Spring Valley Corridor, a planned development sold to the residents with slides of fancy mixed-use buildings and sidewalk cafes. But the developer says that restaurants with drive throughs saw increased business during the COVID-19 pandemic and he predicts that isn't ever going away. I guess cities built in walkable form are now just going to shrivel and die. At least the City Plan Commission bought the sales pitch. We'll see what the City Council says when the project goes there.

2nd Dispatch from the Chamber of Secrets

The Richardson City Council has been meeting in secret to set the council's vision, mission, goals, strategies, and tactics for its two-year term. There's no video. There are no minutes. There were three members of the public at the second meeting. As far as I can tell, my dispatches are all that's available about what went on in the second secret meeting.

Dispatch from the Chamber of Secrets

On August 30, the Richardson City Council met in secret session to begin setting the council's vision, mission, goals, strategies, and tactics for its two-year term. I say secret because the announcement of the meeting, the site of the meeting, and the recording of the meeting (namely, none) all left something to be desired in the way of transparency. I reported all that in "Secret Richardson City Council Meeting". Since then, I have another complaint about the process to add. Here are the minutes of that meeting, in their entirety:

B. REVIEW AND DISCUSS COUNCIL GOALS FOR THE 2021-2023 COUNCIL TERM
Council discussed the goals process and goals for the 2021-2023 Council term

On September 20, the council did it again. They continued their secret meeting in the same manner as before. Lucky for you, this time, I was there.