Back to Bay Business!
TL;DR:
The multi-unit workforce housing residential development at the corner of Hamton and Santa Monica is moving forward thanks to a Board of Appeals decision last week. Read below for why, even though I’m relieved and excited for our community, I think this counts as a near miss rather than a resounding win.
The Community Development Director position remains an active discussion by the Village Board. I’m concerned that we are not having a larger conversation about how the village approaches long-term strategy.
The Spring Election is Tues Apr 2 and is critically important to sustaining momentum on topics many of you care about. Please read below re: candidates I think you should consider.
Dear all-
Lots to cover! Sorry for the hiatus these last few months.
1. Hampton/ Santa Monica development
Although I'm truly very happy and excited for our community that the Board of Appeals helped to move this multi-unit development forward, I think this whole process should be considered a nearly-missed opportunity rather than a resounding success. The process has revealed that we lack village strategy around development, we don't work to streamline the process of a developer navigating our committees, we could have done better with resident and public communication, and we really lacked alignment between local government committees.
The lack of a well-communicated strategy about strategic development in the village contributed to confusion around this particular development. The village has a comprehensive plan approved in 2019 by 4 of my current board colleagues that includes affordable housing, but we have yet to seriously engage you the residents on what it means to you and how to achieve our desired outcomes.
If we had a clear strategy about development, we might have had the opportunity to more actively work with the developer AND the Architectural Review Commission (ARC) proactively to align on principles. I think the messaging to the broader community and region could have been SO different. Instead, as you have read, we have come across as unwelcoming, reactive and resistant. It's not a good look for us, and it is one that reinforces a pre-existing view of our community.
In conversations with Village Board members and ARC members, it's clear a majority of individuals DO support of affordable housing initiatives in our community. How then, did this development nearly get derailed? To me, this was evidence that the charter for the ARC and its role needs to be seriously revisited. On the village website the ARC's goal is to "maintain as its goal the perpetuation of the Village character and atmosphere...and enhancement of the desirability of the Village as a residential community." To me that leaves WAY too much open to subjective interpretation for ARC members to have to navigate. The ARC really should focus on code adherence, architectural quality, consistency, design and finish. I hope this is a wake-up call to look not only at the ARC mission but also at simplifying our municipal codes.
2. Community Development Director
To me the near-miss of the Hampton/Santa Monica development is yet another example of how better public engagement (with residents, with local press) could have changed the narrative about the development. We simply cannot keep relying on resident-led initiatives and hope for the best.
While we wait to see what candidates are out there for this position, at minimum, I'm hopeful that this process of discussing a Community Development Director has made it clear to you, the residents, that we as a village have not engaged you on what your priorities for the village are. We have not asked you what you think of the comprehensive plan, nor have we asked you how we should prioritize initiatives laid out in that plan.
Some of my colleagues feel that many of the village priorities could be addressed as one-off initiatives driven by the village board. But I would ask, how many long-term strategic initiatives have you seen the village undertake in a long-term fashion? Until village staff have bandwidth (via more staffing) and until we build muscle for this sort of thinking, we are going to continue to rely on resident-led initiatives or one-off projects.
3. Upcoming Spring Election
The spring election may not have a significant presidential primary but it is VERY important to the village. As this past year has shown, split decisions may become more common and necessary to move us forward strategically, and the balance of such split decisions does hang on this election.
If the above issues are important to you, or if any of the items I've discussed over the past 1.5 years are important to you, then please consider the following two candidates, who I fully endorse. Please learn more about these two and if they align with your vision for our community, please help spread the word by email/ social media/ yard signs:
Jacob Haller (click here for website or here for recent Facebook post) is a current trustee running for re-elelction. He's the real deal- a humble, hard-working public servant who has always struck me as thoughtful and considerate. As a resident, I am honored to have him represent us and hope he gets the opportunity to continue working for us!
Bruce Kruger (click here for website or here for recent Facebook post) is one of the most knowledgeable WFB residents I know in terms of understanding how our local government works. He's been to more board and committee meetings than anyone but the elected officials! We would be lucky to have such a dedicated resident serve.
As always, please share and please let me know your thoughts!
Until next time-
Jay