West U drops rezoning study

Response to petition letters

Matt Dietrichson, Mar 02, 12.

The West U City Council decided not to pursue a non-residential zoning study this year, as citizens voiced strong opposition, according to Instant News West U:

Council was expected to set a timeline for the project at its Feb. 13 meeting, but council told Ross during a closed executive session that night that they did not want to pursue the project at this time.

Council discussed the town center during an evaluation of the city manager prior to the regular council meeting.

“At this point and time, there is not an interest on the city council to pursue the commercial zoning study,” Ross said. “They’ve listened to the constituents and they’ve decided to let it go.”

Council was expected to vote on the second reading of the town center zoning ordinance on Jan. 9, but Mayor Bob Fry asked that it be removed from the agenda.

The decision to postpone a vote on the proposal came after the city council received more than 200 petition letters through a website called “StopWestUGalleria.org.”

The deferral came nearly a year after the ad hoc committee first presented its Town Center report to council. The ZPC worked on drafting proposals for zoning amendments to Edloe Street after getting the go ahead from council last year.

The proposed zoning changes were going to create a new zoning district designation for the tracts of land located south of Rice Boulevard, north of University, east of Edloe and west of Poor Farm Ditch.

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