After some time out of the limelight due to the hubbub surrounding Shoppes at Wyndham Village, The Fountains of Franklin had the Plan Commission stage to themselves at the 5/3/07 meeting. Mark Carstensen's 11th hour request to pull "Shoppes" from the agenda meant Fountains occupied the entire session.
After a flurry of press releases proclaiming enormous square footage, the developers of Fountains came before the Plan Commission with what could be called stage one; a 58,700-square-feet Sendik's grocery store on a 7.1-acre lot that it will eventually share with a bank.
The mayor was moving briskly to a vote on approval for the site when Aldermen Steve Olson (District 1) and Lyle Sohns (District 5, within which Fountains would be built) agitated for a halt, asking why there would be no public hearing on the matter. A group from the neighborhood adjoining the development were in attendance and obviously expected to be heard.
"I have issues. Mr. Mayor, this is the first time I have ever been to one of these meetings - - in your tenure, in the tenure of Fred Klimetz - - that the public has not been allowed comment," Alderman Olson said, with Alderman Sohns joining in as well. Alderman Olson pressed on, adding that he'd first seen the plans the previous Monday.
The city attorney assured all assembled that no public hearing was needed, and added that he didn't recall public hearings on site plans before the Plan Commission previously.
"Well, can we have one?" Alderman Sohns asked. The mayor then allowed public comment, which mainly revolved around the concerns residents of the Serenity Estates subdivision somewhat adjacent to the planned Sendik's.
More on that and the intriguing implications thereof in Part 2, where I'll take a look at issues of human scale and neighborhood integration into a commercial zone, two facets that are once again being given short shrift at an otherwise positive commercial project.
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