Town Council Meeting

Tonight, as Kristi's prodding, I went to the Flower Mound Town Council meeting (Agenda). I enjoyed it, but jeez, did it ever take some time. The meeting started at 6PM and went (without break) until after 1AM. At least half the citizens who filled out the form indicating a desire to speak on the main topic were not around long enough to do so. All-in-all, the meeting was organized and well run.

The primary topic was the voting on a Special Use Permit to allow a larger footprint for a single retailer in a planned retail shopping area. The town requires this process for all retailers desiring over 25,000 sq.ft. In this case, the retailer is Kroger and the intersection is just outside our subdivision. The developer,Rosebriar, did a world class plan to develop this site and was recognized by both proponents and opponents for their efforts.

The amazing thing to me, and it's been this way for a long time, is the folks who seem to do nothing more than scream, "Not in my backyard." Now these opponents never used this phrase, but they did say quite a bit about how the town shouldn't allow another grocery store (even though it is the market, not the council, that should make this decision), or the traffic would be a problem (even though the Traffic Impact Study indicated it would meet or beat town standards), or how Central Market or Whole Foods would be a better tennant (even though neither is remotely interested in the location, the nearby demographics, and the traffic would be much worse), or how this was against the town's SmartGrowth plan (even though this type of growth is allowed and the plan is about intelligent growth, not maintaining the status quo).

I did get up to speak in favor of the proposal, because why else stay for most of the day, but I doubt I'll take the effort to find, tape, transfer, and store the clip for you.