No P&Z Meeting Again This Month?
The Planning and Zoning Commission regularly meets on the first Tuesday of each month. Well, except for the last 2 months. There was no meeting in September, and there will be no meeting in October.
Has commercial development in Helotes ground to a halt? No one has applied for a permit for new signs or lighting? No ordinances to rewrite? No zoning variances requested?
Citizen involvement has been seriously diminished by Mayor Schoolcraft. After all, he has completely shut down several committees.
There is no Architectural Review Board anymore. P&Z now makes the decisions they used to make, well, when they’re allowed to meet. The 10 citizens on the P&Z Commission are really the only citizens left that review the plans, plats, zoning, and permit requests of builders and developers, as well as insuring that signage, lighting, and landscaping complies with the City’s ordinances.
Who knows who takes care of the duties that were assigned to the Tree Preservation Committee? I’d guess the City Arborist, but those issues never get discussed in public anymore, so who knows what’s being done about saving our trees and insuring compliance with that ordinance.
The Parks and Open Space Committee was shut down. Now we have a Parks and Recreation Committee whose main duty seems to be facilitating entertainment. Don’t get me wrong. I think Christmas parades, Easter egg hunts, and movie nights are good things, and they’re enjoyed by many in our community. My point is just that the current Parks Committee is nothing like the Parks Committee the Mayor did away with.
We do still have an Ethics Commission, operating, as far as I know, under the same ordinance as they always did, but I don’t even remember the last time they met.
It’s the same with the Board of Adjustment, except it is my understanding that this Board is established by state law, so Schoolcraft couldn’t dissolve it if he wanted to.
While it is true that citizen review can complicate or slow down the development process, it is a necessary complication. Citizens are, I guess you could call them, stakeholders in that process. They have a real interest in keeping Helotes a nice place to live. Their property values depend on it. So citizen involvement is a necessary thing, a good thing, that, in my opinion, has been dealt a serious blow under Tom Schoolcraft.
If we just sit back and let the current administration do whatever they want, let them develop Helotes any way they want, we’ll get what we deserve.
Maybe we just don’t care anymore.
Let us know what you think.
Does anyone care? Apparently not. Last election, only one citizen came forward to challenge the mayor and offer the public a choice at the polls. Where were all the Wal-Mart foes? Where were all those 35 committee volunteers that got shown the door? I guess they all are happy with Tom and his Squad. They condone with their silence.