Ithaca, New York is doing some upzoning to allow for more development in some waterfront district prompting this guy to try to push all my buttons simultaneously:
Ray Schlather, who spoke against the ordinance during the public hearing section of Wednesday’s meeting, asked Common Council members to take more time with the proposal and come up with something “more realistically Ithaca.” He submitted a memorandum to council members that listed problems he saw in the proposed zoning, while trying to offer alternatives. He is concerned that the new zoning has no parking requirements, that no traffic study was conducted prior to passing the zoning, that public access will be lost in an area that ironically, he said, was park land 50 years ago, and that ultimately the changes in zoning that allow for more development will change the character of the West End, which he describes as being the orphan child who always gets the “short shrift.”
This is truly the land use reactionary’s lament. On the one hand, there won’t be enough new parking. On the other hand, it’ll make traffic worse. Of course requiring more parking would make the traffic impact that much more severe. But never mind, the real issue here is that if you allow anything to happen it “will change the character” of the place where it’s happening. Therefore nothing should ever be allowed, except maybe parks.