Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Zoning Hearing Call Down Gets Weird - part 3

Thanks to an alert reader of this blog, I have an update for all of you on that February 25th meeting of the City-County Council - in particular the calling down of a zoning matter at 460 Virginia Avenue (see "Monday Night Meeting May Include Zoning Hearing" and "Council May Review Zoning Matter - part 2")

It seems that about 5 minutes after the vote to call down the zoning case (meaning the Council would hope for a negotiated settlement, but plan for a full blown Council hearing on the petition) there was a vote to reconsider the earlier vote.  A vote to reconsider is extremely rare and I did not scan all the votes taken that night for such an eventuality.

Councillor Gray, one of the yes votes, stated that he voted incorrectly and wanted the record to reflect his true position.  The procedural decision was made that a vote to reconsider should be taken, and if successful, a new vote on calling down the zoning matter would be taken.  Here is the clip of this part of the Council meeting:
 
 
The vote to reconsider was 20 yes to 8 no votes (Councillor Brown was absent).  Democrat Councillor Lewis joined Republicans Cain, Freeman, Hunter, McHenry, Pfisterer, Sandlin, and Scales in opposing the new vote.
 
The new vote on whether or not to call down and schedule a public hearing for the zoning petition was 16 for and 12 against, as the earlier count had been.  BUT, those voting yes and no changed.  In the first take, three Democrats (Adamson, Gray and Mansfield) joined all Republicans in favor of hearing the zoning petition.  In the second take, Gray withdrew his support, voting no instead - and - Lewis switched her no vote for a yes vote.  She did not explain her change of heart.

The hearing was continued at last night's Council meeting.  It is now scheduled for April 22.

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