Canada Dry Property and other thoughts on City Council Briefing Session

-----
Looks like a full program for the next Greensboro City Council briefing. Near the bottom of the agenda there is a line saying "Other Items as Time Permits". This could be a long session. Of course, many of the Council Members leave if the meeting goes on too long. Not like the televised meetings where most hang in there until the end.

According to the Greensboro City Webside, the Council Briefing tomorrow morning (5/8/07) includes a presentation regarding acquisition of the former Canada Dry site. I think the last time this was presented to the council in a briefing session, the presenters were from the Coliseum Management Team and the Greensboro Sports Commission.

Don't know who will do the presenting this time, but I suspect that it will be a very pro-buy group and a lot of talk about all the economic benefits that will come to the city when this property is developed. Listen with skepticism. The same side keeps giving the same arguments. Where is the debate?

I think the property should be developed. I'm not even against the city's acquiring it at a reasonable price. But, not for an ACC Hall of Fame and not at the expense of ignoring other properties that the city government owns and does not maintain properly.

I hope the presentation is not too long. There are other items on the agenda that should be considered carefully. Expanding city water and sewer into areas in the county and making it prime for annexation SHOULD BE DONE WITH CAUTION. I don't know how much more land the city can annex and continue to provide essential services to the whole city. The bond issue for new firestations is just one example of how much the cost of expanding the city limits is costing ALL city residents. Police protection is spread thin and taxes keep rising.

Enlarging the city limits willy-nilly, just to keep Greensboro "growing" and keeping it the third largest city in the state seems unwise at this time.

Council briefings are held at 8:30 am in the Plaza Level Conference Room in the Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 West Washington Street, Greensboro.

Agenda for May 8, 2007 Council Briefing


Presentation regarding acquisition of former Canada Dry site
Update on the Greensboro/Guilford County Water and Sewer Agreement and related land use issues
Recommendation regarding capacity use fees
Presentation of Cool Cities proposal
Guilford Battleground Company presentation regarding long term plans
Heart of the Triad presentation
Other items as time permits:
- Set date for Noise Ordinance “Test”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My post today !!th.) is just a reminder that projected tax increase this year is 19 cents because bond payments are coming up and the city council has spent the monies put aside for these payments. This 19 cents figure was given out at the coucils last retreat. How can these people so brazenly keep spending and knowing this is coming up? Just when will the tax payers finally revolt? Brenda

Anonymous said...

Diane,
Maybe now is the time for change. We need some new faces on city council, school board and county commission. How about you?