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Rayhill criticizes method of advisory board appointments
By Karen Carr Keefe
Senior Contributing Writer
A couple of residents with concerns about Town Board issues livened up Monday’s Town Board meeting.
•Paul Koppmann put the Golfview project in the crosshairs of his presentation to the board. His comments followed a workshop discussion on the planned housing development at Whitehaven and East River roads.
•Cathy Rayhill targeted the way in which the Town Board has recently added new members to its advisory boards.
Both residents’ complaints dealt with quality-of-life issues for Grand Islanders.
Koppman’s plea is for lower population density in a planned housing development.
Rayhill’s quest is to bring diverse points of view to panels that advise the town on zoning regulations for warehouses.
Koppmann was the first speaker in the public comment portion of the meeting. He said he’s still dissatisfied with the population density in plans proposed for the Golfview project. The 65-acre site is divvied up such that 51 acres are zoned R-2, residential; and about 14 more acres are zoned B-1, general business.
The concept plan has, in past iterations, included a combination of single-family homes, townhomes, mixed-use buildings, and apartments clustered around a courtyard, as well as 25% permanent green space and recreational trails.
Koppmann noted that town discussions on Golfview are likely on hold until after the Nov. 5 general election.
“The plans that have been presented the last few years … (have) really focused on maximum density, double that which was outlined in the master plan,” Koppmann said.
“Last plans proposed really required two things: one, rezoning B-1, 14 acres, to R-2, or some sort of a plan that required a PDD (Planned Development District),” he said.
“The unfortunate thing is that this B-1 parcel of 14.4 acres is more than double what the master plan outlines … outside town center,” he said.
“The question I’ve heard, from the Town Board, from the attorney, from the engineer, ‘How can we move forward?’ It’s very, very simple. The answer is at hand: It’s called ‘lower the density.’ Unfortunately, the applicant does not seem to want to do that or is not hearing that.”
“What would happen if the density were lowered?” Koppmann asked, then answered with a list of possibilities. “Buffers could be increased; wildlife corridors could be left as is, both on Timberlink (Drive) and East River side; larger single family lots, increase those from 120 feet because they border on townhomes that are only 30 feet from the property line. You could increase all the setbacks. You could create a development that people would actually want to live in.
“Marketability would far exceed what’s been proposed over the last – well, since 2021.”
Koppmann said the Town Board has told residents that it’s not the town’s responsibility to present a plan. “I fully agree.” He said it’s up to the applicant to present a plan that actually complies with the town’s master plan.
Koppmann said his comments are in line with views expressed by a number of residents who have spoken before the Town Board.
Golfview Project Attorney Sean Hopkins said the last issue to nail down in the current application before the Town Board is down-zoning the B-1 parcel of 14 acres to either R-2 or PDD.
“We’re hoping to get a consensus one way or another and finally move this thing forward. We still have a lot of work to do,” Hopkins said at the town’s workshop meeting Monday.
Council member Dan Kilmer said it made sense to consider the issue after the Nov. 5 election, when a fifth member will be elected to the board whose size now stands at four. That fifth vote could be the tiebreaker as to whether the zoning for the smaller of the two Golfview parcels would go to R-2 or PDD, Kilmer said.
Rayhill, in her turn at the mic, pointed out that Town Board members have said they want to get the word out and get more people to apply for positions on its advisory boards. She said that hasn’t happened.
“After witnessing the process (of) the commercial rezoning and master plan review, I can understand why people are very frustrated and don’t apply,” Rayhill said.
There was a deadline of 10 a.m. Aug. 16 to apply for an advisory board slot. Rayhill said that – to the best of her knowledge – four people submitted applications. “And to the best of my knowledge, not a single one of those applicants, who put in their applications by the due date, in time, were either communicated with, interviewed or spoken to at all. Not even a conversation. And yet, when I find out who has been appointed to this committee, it is the same people, over and over again – yet you want more participation from residents.”
Rayhill called for council members to flip the script and give more and different people a chance to serve.
“I will even go so far as to say at least four of those members are publicly on record as supporting large warehouses, already. And yet none of the people appointed are on record of having any other kind of diversity of viewpoint. That’s a shame,” Rayhill said.
“The moratorium (on the permitted size and location of large commercial buildings) that started this whole process basically says that the purpose of this whole law is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the Town of Grand Island.”
Kilmer agreed with Rayhill.
“We’ve got to do better at diversity on these boards,” he said, while also noting the applicants should have been informed on the timing of interviews for the advisory board seats.