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Columbia plans to clean house on land-use boards: New appointees will determine how city is developed
October 3, 2007
The people who decide how Columbia grows are being forced off land-use boards in a sweeping change that could affect the way the city looks for decades.Leading the charge for change are conservative members of City Council and business leaders, who say the powerful boards' members have become entrenched and developers have to work too hard to get projects built in the city.
City Council is establishing new term limits and residency requirements that could turn over every seat on the powerful Planning Commission and a majority on the Design, Development Review Commission.
Those two boards, whose members are appointed by council, control development in the city by recommending zoning changes and regulating such matters as site plans and height restrictions, or by governing materials and styles of buildings.
The vast majority of developers must go before one or both of these boards to build projects. Who sits on the panels will decide how the city grows for years.
The changes come at a time when developers are competing for a shrinking pool of downtown land for big-dollar projects.
"We are in essence replacing entire commissions," Mayor Bob Coble said after a four-hour work session Wednesday. "We're losing a lot of experience, and we have to be very careful."
Councilmen Kirkman Finlay and Daniel Rickenmann are urging their colleagues to put more business-minded members on the boards, which traditionally have been dominated by neighborhood leaders.
Finlay and Rickenmann claim members of the Planning Commission and DDRC - some of whom have served since the early 1990s - have become capricious in their rulings.
"Times are changing," Rickenmann said. "We need to bring new blood onto the boards. Some people have served so long (the rulings) are their interpretation and not the law."
In particular, DDRC members, they said, have allowed their tastes rather than policy to hamstring projects, costing developers time and money unnecessarily.
"You look at these boards, and they don't have anyone who is actually involved in construction," Finlay said. "And it's hard to conform to champagne tastes when you have a beer budget."
The rest of council saw enough problems to go along with the changes.
The DDRC is "one board we’ve had a slew of complaints about," north Columbia’s Sam Davis said.
At-large member Tameika Isaac Devine added of both the DDRC and Planning Commission: "We've all gotten calls about their behavior and how they've treated people."
Planning Commission chairwoman Susan Heyward, when contacted after the meeting, said she knows of only one incident since she joined the board in 2001 when she felt a member did not treat a speaker or presenter fairly. She said as chairwoman she admonished the member in private.
"I feel I have always been fair," she said.
Heyward said the city should have stricter rules for all development so decisions are less dependent on board members' judgment.
Members of the Midlands Business Leadership Group, an organization of the region's business leaders, have told council that business interests need to be better represented - even submitting some names for consideration. And they are advocating the city rescind a new requirement that board members be city residents.
"A lot of people have huge capital investments here in the city but may live in Forest Acres," said the group's Cathy Novinger. "They shouldn’t be discounted. We don't want to eliminate good leadership in the city."
The group's Steve Benjamin, an attorney and developer who is also chairman of the Richland County Democratic Party, agrees more business people should be appointed and residency requirements be eliminated.
"We need to make sure we have people on those boards that make good, sound decisions based on fact and good judgment," he said. "I want them to be sensitive to the needs of business. That doesn't mean that that can’t be balanced with the needs of neighborhoods."
City Council member Anne Sinclair, however, said the exodus of neighborhood leaders from the boards worried her. She noted that four neighborhood leaders are leaving the Planning Commission alone, including Heyward.
Heyward was recently the only "no" vote on the Planning Commission's approval of the controversial six-story retail, condo and parking garage project, 5 Points South.
"Balance is important," Sinclair said. "But we are losing the neighborhood perspective significantly. I'm going to work hard to make sure it doesn't tip too much one way or the other."
The development vs. neighborhood fight came to a head this summer when Coble, urged by neighborhood leaders and preservationists, convinced council to restrict construction of "McMansions" and the destruction of homes 50 years or older in historic, in-town neighborhoods.
The fight is expected to continue into Apri's election to replace Sinclair, who is stepping down.
Candidate Belinda Gergel, a former Columbia College history professor and former chairwoman of the Historic Columbia Foundation, is facing off against West Point graduate and developer Brian Boyer.
Gergel urged Coble to enact the McMansion and subdivision rules. Boyer has said the rules amount to a moratorium on in-town and in-fill development.
A third candidate, Reed Swearingen, has entered the race on a platform of moderate growth control.
Meanwhile, Rickenmann faces political newcomer Cameron Runyan, a self-proclaimed Democrat.
Given the political overtones, shock waves from the mass turnover could be felt for years.
All 13 city boards and commissions will be bound by the new rules. City Council on Wednesday filled many spaces on minor boards but put off appointments to the Planning Commission and the DDRC until a special meeting can be called in late October or early November.
Council members will use the time to haggle over the makeup of the boards on the basis of whether a appointee is pro-business or pro-neighborhood, in addition to the traditional diversity standards of sex, age, race and council district.
"Traditionally, neighborhoods and the business communities have been kept apart," Rickenmann said. "But the more they are merged, the better they can come together to work for the betterment of the community."
The State
By JEFF WILKINSON and GINA SMITH
WHO IS ON THE BOARDS?
The compositions of the city of Columbia’s powerful land-use boards are about to change dramatically.
Planning Commission
Each of the nine members’ terms has expired, so each member could be replaced. This powerful board makes zoning decisions, deciding what can locate where.
Chairwoman, Susan B. Heyward; term expired March 1, 2005
Jenny Screen; term expired March 1, 2007; office of David Swinton, president, Benedict College
Ronald Anderson; term expired March 1, 2006; vice president of research and technology, NAI Avant real estate company
Nancy R. Reid; term expired March 1, 2005; Companion Health Care/BCBSSC
James Hildebrand; term expired March 1, 2006
Isabelle N. Mandel; term expired March 1, 2007; consultant/counselor
Billy Way; term expired March 1, 2005; principal, Grubb & Ellis Wilson Kibler commercial real estate
Tiaa Booker; term expired March 1, 2006; senior planner, Central Midlands Council of Governments
Jonathan Vipperman; term expired March 1, 2006; sales executive, Misys Healthcare Systems
Design Development Review Commission
Six of the nine members could be replaced because their terms have expired. Two members, City Council noted Wednesday, live outside the city limits. One, Travis Butler, has time remaining on his term and will be allowed to remain, council decided. This commission reviews work proposed for designated landmarks, historic districts and urban design areas.
Chairman, James Mancini; lives outside city limits; term expired April 30; president, Southern Equipment Fabricators
Elizabeth Harrison; term expired Sept. 30, 2005
James Byrum; term expired April 30; business consultant
Nancy McCormick; term expired April 30; attorney
Durham Carter; term lasts through April 30, 2008; retired
Gertrude O. Siebels; term expired Sept. 30, 2005; architectural historian
Walter H. Sims; term expired April 30; preservation architect
Travis A. Butler; lives outside city limits; term lasts through April 30, 2008; developer
John D. Bowman Jr.; term lasts through April 30, 2008; architect