City Council's public hearing on May 18, was considerably shorter than anticipated because the request for a development special use permit for the Archstone project at Cameron Station was deferred.
Council received notification that the item was being deferred the day before the public hearing. The Planning Commission had denied the request earlier this month.
"The deferral will provide Cameron Associates LLC and Archstone Communities the opportunity to reevaluate the project, taking into consideration the many comments heard from the Cameron Station community, the Planning Commission, the Planning staff and members of Council over the past year and a half," said Duncan Blair, an attorney for the project, in a letter to Council.
Eileen Fogarty, the director of the Planning and Zoning department, said that the deferral was wise. "I think that the Planning Commission's message was very clear," she said. "This project needs some significant revisions before it will be acceptable."
COUNCILMAN DAVID SPECK agreed. "Politically, this was the right thing to do," Speck said. "They didn't have the votes to get this project approved and there was no reason to make us all sit through a lengthy public hearing. I hope that they use the time to look at some of the elements of the project, particularly the parking. I have heard many comments that Archstone simply wanted to come to Council because they knew that we would approve this project. That simply isn't true. I believe that Council would, unanimously, have agreed with the Planning Commission had this come to a vote."
THE DEVELOPER must now look at the options and decide whether to submit a new or revised plan. At any rate, the project must go through the planning staff and commission process before it will come to Council again. No one knows how long this might take.