In Shaw (an historically gentrified blog)

The Mondie Hearing

Photo is of the property in questionIf you want details go bug Karl La Cour, the de facto (as none of the rest of us bothered to step up) spokesman of the Richardson Focus Group. If you want a completely me-centric view of the Zoning bored meeting, continue on.
I was hoping for a quick in/out as Mondie was supposed to ask for postponement of his hearing. I requested 4 hours off from my job, thinking that if it is supposed to start at 9:30AM and if postponements and continuances are handled first I'd be back at work by lunch, or after lunch.
No. The Board did not walk in until 10:07AM. They did touch Mondie's postponement early but wanted to establish parties, which meant waiting till cases 17400 & 17405 were covered. Case 17400 went by quickly, and apparently Planning wrote up a lovely report, a must read. Case 17405, not so quickly. The property in question was in Foxhall Village or Canal View and there was an issue with the deck on the rear, a 4ft back yard, and a fence in lieu of an evergreen screen. Apparently the builder was at fault as the new owners (as of 8 months) inherited the builder's renegged promises. The interesting aspect of this was the patients at the mental hospital on the other side of the fence have a habit of mooning the homeowners. See, one good thing about Truxton, I have never been mooned by mental patients in Truxton!
But enough of those people and their west of the park problems, let's talk Mondie. At 11:37AM it was our turn. The board had Karl and a Richardson property owner who JUST found out about Mondie's proposal join forces so there is just one large opposition party. Party status gives the Richardson Focus Group (RFG) the same status as the petitioner, Mondie, so things submitted to the Board have to be submitted to the RFG as well. Mondie wanted to make the next zoning hearing date as soon as possible. The board seemed more concerned with him being prepared by the next date, which is January 24th. By that date Mondie needs to work something out with the RFG. The board suggested that he do that, and find agreement by January 10th so all will be ready and already discussed by the ANC meeting on the 17th. Mondie voiced concern about an ever expanding list of questions.
Okay. I must have missed a meeting. I was at the meeting when Mondie and his lawyer did the bit where his lawyer would ask a question and Mondie would give an answer. I don't know where the questions came from so I can't speak to that. I gather there is some frustrations on Mondie's part, as more people find out about the project the more inquiries he gets. It probably would have helped if there was a central place where all the info on the project was to save him from having to field so many enquires. Hell a blog costs nearly nothing (livejournal or blogspot), then there is flickr for pictures. I mean if you really wanted to, you could put the info out there and possibly answer 1/2 of the questions. When you hold information close to your vest expect people to bug you for it. Of course, there is the other problem of when you do answer the question and it's not the right answer.
There is more to this but as I said, bug Karl, he's the man.

posted by Mari @ 14.12.05