REMARKS
Council Member Carr criticizes City of Yes zoning amendment and urges colleagues to vote against it
0:43:47
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119 sec
Council Member David Carr expresses strong opposition to the City of Yes zoning amendment, citing concerns about insufficient environmental review and potential legal vulnerabilities. He argues that the amendment is effectively a mapping action disguised as a text amendment, which he believes makes it susceptible to legal challenges.
- Carr contends that the amendment ignores public will and fails to address infrastructure needs
- He criticizes the environmental review process, arguing it underestimates the number of housing units that would be created
- Carr urges his colleagues to vote against the amendment and suggests a motion to disapprove after the vote
David Carr
0:43:47
Thank you, majority leader.
0:43:49
Colleagues, when I spoke at the subcommittee on zoning and franchises a couple of weeks ago on City of Yes, I talked a lot about the fact that the public will of so many of our constituents was being ignored in City of Yes, that our infrastructure needs were already not being met at current levels of development, and that we had an opportunity to do more housing the right way that was respectful of neighborhood character.
0:44:14
And having spoken about that and knowing that other colleagues are doing and will do the same here today, I wanna focus a little bit on what I believe to have been the insufficient environmental review that this administration did with respect to City of YES.
0:44:27
At the hearing we held on October 21st, the administration testified in response to my questioning that this is a text amendment, not a mapping amendment, and the environmental review was done accordingly.
0:44:37
But I believe that city of Yas is a mapping amendment masquerading as a text amendment.
0:44:43
It is a mapping action, and therefore, the environmental review was not done.
0:44:47
City of Yas seeks to change minimum lot sizes across residential districts, especially in r ones.
0:44:53
It's seeking to map transit oriented development zones across our city without actually changing the underlying zoning.
0:45:00
This is a mapping action in all but name, and that's why I believe that this text amendment so called is incredibly vulnerable to legal action.
0:45:09
And I believe that this environmental review did not even get to the scrape the top of the iceberg of how many housing units it will actually create, far more than the 109,000 plus that it capped out at according to the study.
0:45:22
So I believe that this text amendment will not survive a legal challenge, and one is likely to be forthcoming.
0:45:30
And I just wanna remind colleagues that we still have an opportunity to disapprove.
0:45:34
The only thing that's off the table here today are new modifications.
0:45:37
So let's vote down city of yes, and then one of us can put forward a motion to disapprove after we're successful.
0:45:43
And I urge my colleagues to vote no.
0:45:45
Thank you.
