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Letter to City Council, City Manager, Deputy City Manager, Planning Director, Deputy Planning Director, and Comprehensive Plan Administrator


September 3, 2024

Good morning, Councilmembers, Manager, Deputy Manager, Planning Director, Deputy Planning Director and Comprehensive Plan Administrator:

Today you are hearing a land-use item named Thalia Plaza, LLC where the applicant has worked with the Planning Department Staff for about a year to develop property between the Pembroke SGA and the Rosemont SGA, at the site of an old Domino’s pizza, into a four-story apartment building, which is located immediately adjacent to established, suburban neighborhoods, Thalia Village and Thalia Acres.

In April of this year, the Thalia Civic League received an email from the attorney representing the applicant that depicted a three-story apartment building. The Civic League Officers and membership met and were not in opposition to a three-story structure at this location and advised the applicant’s attorney of such. There were no renderings of the building displayed at the Planning Commission hearing and no testimony at the Planning Commission hearing that indicated that this building was not three stories as was purported to us in April. The neighborhood saw no reason to distrust the information provided by the applicant’s attorney. Whether this was a mistake or whether we were lied to is immaterial.

Once the City Council packages containing this application were made public, a review of this application showed that the building was not three stories as originally presented to us, but it was four stories. Four stories on a property immediately adjacent to established, suburban neighborhoods coupled with a request for a lot width variance, a lot depth variance, and a lot size deviation of over 50%, using Strategic Growth Area designs for an application NOT in a Strategic Growth Area, and designed using the URBAN Design Guidelines portion of the Comprehensive Plan, rather than the SUBURBAN Design Guidelines, is asking for too much. The lot is too small, the parking is minimally adequate and insufficient if there are over 50% food establishments in the retail portion of the building, the setbacks from the established, suburban neighbors are inadequate, and the height of the building does not fall in line with the mass and scaling guidelines in the Comprehensive Plan.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the City is using the Comprehensive Plan when it is convenient to do so and ignoring the Comprehensive Plan at other times when that is convenient. A perfect example is the Green Clean Car Wash on Holland Road that is being recommended for denial using the Comprehensive Plan, yet this Thalia Plaza application is being recommended for approval, by completely ignoring the Comprehensive Plan and the Design Guidelines contained therein. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. We are inconsistently applying the Comprehensive Plan and in doing so, the City is picking winner and losers. That behavior must cease. If we continue to fail to adhere to the Comprehensive Plan, except when it is convenient for the City to do so, then the millions of dollars spent, and the thousands of hours of public engagement are meaningless.

The taxpaying, voting citizens of the City will not be a party to inconsistent application of the Comprehensive Plan. It is my suggestion that deviations from the Comprehensive Plan be only “for good cause shown” and for no other reasons. The citizens have a right to expect adherence to the development documents that the City produces. That is not currently the case.

Again, I urge you to deny this application for the reasons stated above, and to order all City Departments to adhere to the Comprehensive Plan as it is written.

Thanks to all of you for your ongoing, and continuing, service to the City.