STEELE CREEK NEWS
Steele Creek Area
Plan on Fast Track for Approval
(April 24,
2011) Last week the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Committee heard comments
from the public on the
Draft Steele Creek Area Plan. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Planning Staff will present the draft plan to the
City Council Transportation and Planning Committee at
2:00 on April 28. The public is scheduled to have one last
opportunity to comment on the draft plan at the Charlotte City
Council meeting on June 13.
After that, the
Planning Staff will choose which comments to incorporate into the
final plan and is scheduled to present this for final approval to
the Planning Committee on June 21. They will present it to the City
Council for approval at a future council meeting to be determined.
The Citizens Advisory
Group has been meeting since summer 2009 to review plans and
activities of various city, county, and state agencies in Steele
Creek and to provide input into the plan. However, now that the plan
is approaching its final form and approval, the role of the Citizens
Advisory Group has ended, and it is not scheduled to meet again.
The draft plan was made
available on the Steele Creek Area Plan web page in March, but it
contains many details that the Citizens Advisory Group had not seen
before. It also contains numerous omissions and errors, such as
inconsistencies between the maps and text.
The public provided comments
at the March 31 community workshop
(See
Staff Response to Comments Received at March 31 Community
Workshop), through
emails, at the Planning Committee meeting, and through other means,
but the public apparently will not have the opportunity to see and
comment on the staff revisions before the final plan is presented to
the Planning Committee and City Council for approval.
Although the public has had an opportunity to comment on the draft,
it apparently will not have an opportunity to see how those comments
were or were not incorporated into the plan or to see changes made
based on other people's comments.
The
Citizen Advisory Group Ground Rules state "Our goal is
general consensus. Please come to each meeting with an open mind and
be prepared to work towards agreement." However, the Citizen
Advisory Group apparently will not have an opportunity to review and
reach agreement on the final plan.
For information on the June 21
City Council meeting and how to sign up to speak, see the
City Council Meetings web page.
To comment on this
story please visit the
Steele Creek Forum.
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