With Developers being Crabgrass, and Consultants Sandburs, Staff Planners with degrees from planning school are Wrong-way Driving Enablers. Who genuflect to Met Council. In every way, every detail. Never questioning.
The item online.
The term SNAFU has at times been expanded to SNAFUBHR, ... Beyond Human Recognition. City Pages, however, recognizes. And comments.
UPDATE: Most planners and officials are aware that change in a neighborhood almost always is met with neighbor opposition. It is vexing that the City Pages item was critical with a focus on neighbor opposition and "told you so," but silent on any city planning staff input. The item notes the developer bought a study, but what cosmetologist will tell a client she's plain ugly and there's no way around it?
Was staff underfunded, stifled, or otherwise curtailed in forecasting traffic patterns, or was it situation normal, rubber stamp? This is a fundamental question reporting should have addressed. If a permit with "drive-thru" space had been denied, instead with a town demand to put in additional parking space where drive-thru was sought, would a problem be lessened? Hind sight is always 20:20. Was there any demand forecasting, given drive through designer coffee takes more time than otherwise and designer latte stuff is the Starbucks business model? The article seems to have not delved into city records, which presumably are online. City of Ramsey, tiny and in the 'burbs keeps its history well online. Is it a David Goliath thing, St. Paul being remiss? Or was the item solely aimed at a decision once made, etc. It seems common sense that any drive-thru small lot arrangement at a major intersection is begging for trouble. Invitation for trouble accepted, one instance, might have carryover to next instances; but public official learning curves can be flat.
Because it is easy to be hard on the planners, they are in open season all the time, going easy may have merit. So was the initial non-updated post too harsh? Possibly. Possibly not. The entire Comp Plan process is flawed and costly to towns, at best. Best laid plans of mice and men, etc. Citizen staffed planning commissions can seem a bottleneck to developer intent, but that is a plus and not a minus. Another bottom line, often the neighbors know best but are ignored. Public administrators who are attuned to that chance are best. Those with attitudes of bulling over and past neighbor objection, less so. Ramsey has had James Norman as head administrator, and now has Kurt Ulrich. Would any contend Ramsey has not seen an upgrade, and a substantial one? Ulrich survived a mayor-led coup attempt a few years ago, a past mayor and not the present one, and in part it was community outrage that resulted in a 4-3 vote to not make a big-time mistake.
