Friday, December 5, 2008

Cedar Hill City Council okays land-use plan

By Steve Snyder of TODAY Newspapers

The city of Cedar Hill has a new comprehensive plan.

The Cedar Hill City Council held a public hearing on a proposed new land use plan at its Nov. 11 meeting. Due to the volume of comment, especially about the planned route through the southern part of Cedar Hill by the proposed Loop 9, the council continued the public hearing until its Nov. 25 meeting.

The council unanimously approved the plan, with an amendment by Mayor Pro Tem Cory Spillman for the city to further address its escarpment area ordinances.

A few residents spoke in the hearing, most of them addressing Loop 9 again.

After he closed the public hearing, Mayor Rob Franke provided an overview of how the city had gone through developing the new plan.

“There's been a lot of opportunity for discussion,” he said.

He then said he wanted to address things that were “flat-out incorrect.”

He said that the new comprehensive plan did not rezone any property in the city, including and specifically on the Loop 9 map.

“It says that, if this route goes through, this is the work we need to do,” he said.

He also said he considered the comment of one resident that the city was in “collusion” with the Texas Department of Transportation to be “offensive, because it implies something underhanded.”

He added that because the proposed route was undergoing the process of an environmental impact statement meant that TxDOT could not meet with city officials or residents, and was something the city could not control.

Franke then addressed the issue of Loop 9 likely being built as a toll road.

“Toll roads are a pretty common method in road construction, because the gas tax does not support that,” he added.

“Loop 9 being the only issue out there, my opinion is that we are obligated to plan for that,” he concluded. “I don't think it's responsible to ignore it.”

Other members of the council reinforced Franke's words, noting that Loop 9 was a state-level issue.

“I don't know anyone on this council who's going to benefit from this,” Councilman Cliff Shaw said.

Other than that, councilmembers made clear that their support for the comprehensive plan in no way implied support for - or opposition to - Loop 9 being built.

Spillman said he wanted to make sure the city had some flexibility in the location of a transportation-oriented district.

Beyond residents concerns about Loop 9, the new plan offers many changes to the city's official vision for its future.

That includes the transportation-oriented district, located somewhere in either the historic district or Uptown areas, more controls and guidance for residential development to increase quality and fight monotony, and more.

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