Letter To The Editor: Trust Public Process On Code SMTX

During this special meeting we will consider another 20 proposed amendments and we respect the rights of council members to introduce these amendments. However, we have some serious concerns about this process…

Dear Editor:

This Monday night at a special meeting, the City Council will discuss amendments to the long-awaited land development code, Code SMTX. There have been approximately 30 hours of Council deliberation on this topic so far. While one of us will not be in attendance due to previous travel plans, we felt this would provide us both an opportunity to express our concerns about the public process to achieve the community-wide objectives outlined in our Comprehensive Master Plan (Comp Plan).

The city has invested over $1 million into the design of Code SMTX and the approved Comp Plan. The process of developing Code SMTX has been vetted by a think-tank of local professionals and citizens, received thousands of separate inputs from citizens, been presented in countless public meetings, reviewed and analyzed by our consultants and outside legal counsel who specialize in writing defensible and consistent land development codes along with our talented staff  of professionals at the city.

Council has already approved about 20 amendments that were fully analyzed by staff for their impact on the code and are working to make certain that these amendments are properly placed within Code SMTX to avoid confusion or conflict with other provisions. This version of Code SMTX was passed at first reading.

During this special meeting we will consider another 20 proposed amendments and we respect the rights of council members to introduce these amendments. However, we have some serious concerns about this process:

1. Many of these amendments are not supported by our city staff;
2. These amendments will not be vetted by our outside legal team to eliminate potential confusion, inconsistencies and conflicts;
3. These inconsistencies and conflicts may possibly place parts of our land development code at risk of legal challenge by developers, architects and others; and
4. If passed, we feel some of these amendments would be inconsistent with the adopted Comp Plan that rep-resents our community-wide goals.

In the alternative, Code SMTX allows for regular reviews to be conducted and, if necessary, changes to be made. Council has directed this process be conducted every six to 12 months after passage.

We would ask that we trust our very public process of some four years in the making and pass Code SMTX as written and as proposed. It has been professionally prepared and thoroughly reviewed by trained legal teams, vetted by local citizens and professionals, and commented upon thousands of times by our citizens.

Let’s trust our own process and move forward as a community to achieve the vision we all agreed upon in our Comp Plan, A River Runs Through Us.

Sincerely,
John Thomaides, Mayor
Scott Gregson, Deputy Mayor Pro-Tem

Read tomorrow night’s City Council Special Meeting Agenda HERE.