Save the Date! Feb 18th Jha Appeals to City Council

In This Issue:

• Save the Date

• New Information About Restrictions on the Project Site

• Yard Signs

• Shout Out

Save the Date

Hold the date, February 18, 2025. That’s the tentative date that developer Jha will be making his appeal to the City Council, and we’d like to have a strong turnout. One of our members asked a few days ago if no recent emails meant the project was dead; we wish that were the case! Unfortunately, the process continues to move forward.

If you recall, the last step was that the developer had to appeal the City's decision that his revised project application was submitted too late to qualify for the “”Builders Remedy” law that allows him to get around all zoning requirements. (Without the Builder's Remedy law, there’s no way he can build this project.) He lost his appeal in the Planning Commission meeting in October, but now has the opportunity to appeal to the City Council. We want the City Council to deny the appeal, so that the only option Jha will have left is an expensive lawsuit against the City. Such a lawsuit will add significant time and expense to the project.

We are in the process of putting together a timeline so you can see all the steps that Jha will need to go through for approval. Look for it in the next couple of weeks.

Please plan to join us on the evening of February 18th at the City Council meeting to show our opposition to the project; details to follow. Wear red if you can; we still have red shirts for sale with our logo (at cost) on our website if you need one.

New Information About Restrictions on the Project Site

With the aid of our legal team (which your donations are financing), we’ve determined that a “dedication” was made in 1985 by the previous owners of the land that gave the City the right to reject any building on large swaths of the property. The City legally accepted this dedication, and it was recorded by the County Clerk. The good news is that a dedication like this is not considered zoning, and should not be overridden by the Builder's Remedy law. We are encouraging the City to enforce this dedication through the legal system if necessary. They have given Jha notice of the dedication. This is one of several legal roadblocks that stand in the way of this project, but will likely require enforcement in court. By the way I'd like to acknowledge our all volunteer legal committee led by Sharon Yarber - Sharon and her team have put in hours of work to help us steer this effort in the right direction. Our thanks as well to our specialized Land-Use attorneys Scott Porter and Joshua Gottheim, who have kept us abreast of all the in's and out's of property rights and development law.

Yard Signs

Please keep your yard signs up. If your yard sign was blown away by the strong winds we had, or somehow was lost, you can go on our website and order one for just $1, which is below our cost. We are happy to drop off yard signs at your house. The more yard signs out the better, especially if Jha tries to sell this project to another developer; we want anyone looking at the property to see these signs and know that trying to make this project happen will be a very steep uphill fight.

Shout Out

Lastly, we’d like to give a shout out to Dan at Bolton Engineering. Dan volunteered his time to map out private deed restrictions on the project property from a complicated set of measurements. We really appreciate the help!

See you in February!