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and one member had voted against it, giving it the majority of Council present that <br />day but not the majority of the entire Council. <br /> <br />O. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION (continued if needed) <br />Donna Leach-Heimos, 7700 Amherst <br />Ms. Heimos stated that the Green Practice Committee did not talk about or vote on the <br />Walgreens project. She noted it would be nice if the parking lot was constructed with <br />pervious material and have a rain garden put in. Ms. Heimos thanked Council for <br />approving Green Practices as a commission and stated she has been on the committee <br />for the last three years and looked forward to staying on the commission. <br /> <br />P. COUNCIL COMMENTS <br />Ms. Ricci stated she attended National Night Out and noted that she was asked as to <br />where to rest of her colleagues were. She said the Mayor was there but needed to <br />leave early. Ms. Ricci said a lot of the citizens were there and enjoyed themselves. She <br />was happy that the Green Committee is now a Commission. <br /> <br />Mr. Crow asked for an update from the City Manager regarding the June 3 letter on the <br />Municipal Parks grant commission and lack of use of the facilities funded by their grant; <br />as to whether or not the City had a response and if he could have a copy of that <br />response. He did agree with Ms Ricci on the process that seemed to be created two <br />weeks ago by staff and did not know if they fully understood the impact of this last <br />minute change in process. Since the time he has been on Council, he has never had <br />something come from the Plan Commission, unanimously approved by the Traffic <br />Commission and then have the staff come up with an alternative at the last minute and <br />thought that was a poor practice on the City’s part. Mr. Crow said it makes the City look <br />extremely bad in the development community. He could not understand how the City <br />can say that members of some task force had the opportunity to sit down with staff and <br />impact them in such a way that they would come up with an alternative to something <br />that went through other commissions. Mr. Crow said if people on Green Practices or <br />Bikeability had issues with the development, they had an opportunity at the Plan <br />Commission and at the Traffic Commission. He said their opportunity was not to sit <br />down with staff and have staff make a last minute change that then forced all of Council <br />to spend time scurrying around on three options when in fact the Plan Commission <br />unanimously passed one. Mr. Crow said this development grew from itself and did not <br />come from the City passing some T.I.F. or having a developer ask for a lot of things. He <br />said he thought it was horrible that the City staff put this development at risk at the last <br />minute based on some group of people that no one is really saying who it is, must have <br />had such an impact on staff that they literally came for the first time since he has been <br />on Council, with options for Council that had not gone through the Plan Commission. <br />Mr. Crow said that for the citizens who spend their time on the Plan Commission, it <br />attacks their integrity, it attacks the integrity of the process and when talking about our <br />branding and image. He said we do ourselves a great disservice by the mistakes that <br />are made and of course, the City needs a PR firm when this is done to a developer, who <br />is putting in a 30 million dollar project. He said it utterly astounds him that he spent a <br />good part of his weekend with folks asking questions back and forth about the three <br />alternatives because there was one from planning, one from staff, and a third one today. <br />Mr. Crow said he is extremely disappointed at the way this is going to impact the City’s <br />reputation with development here. <br /> <br /> 17 <br /> <br /> <br />