No Compromise Is Perfect

    Central’s mass rezoning seems to have reached a compromise, which means no one gets everything they want, but most everyone gets enough to allow them to agree.  This compromise would likely never have been considered without informed property owners voicing their opinions and our elected officials being willing to listen.
    On June 24th Central’s City Council will vote on whether to rezone 100% of Central’s 66 square miles of private property.  The past month has seen much discussion and several public meetings to consider changes to the proposed rezoning, and it has been a healthy process of Central.  Two major compromises are to be voted on.
    First, all property commercially zoned or in commercial use prior to this action will retain its zoning and not be affected by the new ordinance.  People and families have invested much time, effort, and money in operating businesses and building commercial buildings.  This action should ensure that their investment will not be devalued in the rezoning.
    In a perfect world where city planners get to take 66 square miles of uninhabited land and decide where all of the businesses will go, some of Central’s businesses would not be allowed where they are.  However, most of these businesses were there before Central was a city.  Council approval of this compromise is expected and I thank our council in advance for making the right decision.
    The second compromise is to allow the majority of the rural property in Central to have minimum lot sizes of one acre instead of the proposed three acres.  The three acre minimum would still apply to some areas designated Conservation or Green Space.
    While individual properties may need to be reconsidered in the future, especially as new flood studies are completed, I am hopeful that our council will approve this compromise.  Central already has some significant barriers to overdevelopment.  There can be no subdivisions of more than seven homes without tying in to sewer lines, which don’t exist in most of Central’s rural areas, and one acre lots make it nearly impossible to build big subdivisions of affordable homes.
    So, in the end, we have compromise, and no compromise is perfect.  However, our Master Plan is also a “living document” and should be able to be reviewed and revised as Central grows.  That is Good News for a Great City.