Comprehensive Plan Review Committee Meeting
This article slipped through the cracks I'm afraid. While the video has been uploaded for awhile now, time constraints prevented me from writing an article about this meeting when it happened. Before long it slipped my mind. I apologize for that and I'm working on ways to keep such mistakes from happening again.
Overland's new Comprehensive Plan Review Committee (CPRC) met for the first time on October 16th, 2007 at the Community Center. This was mostly an organizational meeting to introduce the members to each other and explain the role and goals of the committee. As our readers might recall, at the September 24th City Council Meeting Mayor Schneider named Mark Giroux to head this committee and left naming its membership to him. While concerns were expressed about this in many corners, now that the committee is named many will likely put most of those concerns aside.
The Committee is made up of the following people with all but Don Rolfing being Overland residents:
The Committee is made up of the following people with all but Don Rolfing being Overland residents:
- Mark Giroux - Chairman - also: Planning and Zoning Commission Member and President of C.O.G.G.
- Bob Young - Member - also: Ritenour School Board Member
- Don Rolfing - Member - also: Community Fire Protection District Inspector
- Eedie Cuminale - Member - also: Overland City Council Member (Ward 1)
- Barbara Olsen - Member - also: Local Business owner
- Fran Kulhmann - Member - also: Overland Treasurer and Secretary of C.O.G.G.
- John Alberici - Member - also: Local Business owner
- Lee Patterson - Member - also: Overland Business Association Board Member
- Capt. Mike Laws - Member - also: Director of Operations for Overland P.D.
- Stacey Ficken - Member - also: Local Bank Manager
- Chuck Boone - Member - also: Acting Public Works Director
- Tom Eckert - Member - also: Chairman of the Overland Board of Adjustment
- David Sippe - Member - also: OBA Board member and Local Business owner
There is a good mix of people, experience and opinions represented on this committee. I have had conversations at one time or another with nearly every member and all have been reasonable and willing to consider the opposing views of others for the most part.
There were several guests in attendance at this meeting. Mayor Schneider, City Clerk Linda Downs and Beth Noonan of the St. Louis County Economic Development Council, who spoke about several areas where the St. Louis County EDC could be of assistance.
The original Comprehensive Plan (AKA "Master Plan") for Overland was written back in 2001. The purpose of this committee is to review that plan and work out changes needed to fit Overland for today and tomorrow.
All the members of the Committee were given copies of the current plan to review and consider for the next meeting. That meeting is currently scheduled for November 13th, at 7:00 PM. It was explained that the city offered the use of the Council Chambers for future meetings. With 13 members on that committee they will have to work out where everyone will sit as the dais only accommodates 11 I believe. However, this is a disappointing choice. The smaller rooms at the Community Center have excellent acoustics which allow everyone in attendance to hear clearly as well as allow for clear audio recording (as you can hear for yourself in the video below). Without the sound system in place it is extremely difficult for the audience to hear anything being discussed at a normal volume on the dais. It also makes audio recording nearly impossible. While I understand the Committee's desire to meet without taking up a time slot at the Community Center that might otherwise be rented, I hope they take into consideration residents who might attend in the future and their likely desire to hear what is discussed at the meeting.
The most interesting discussion at this meeting was the explanation of the ground rules for the committee. If followed, rules like these could better enable any organization, perhaps even our City Council, to be more productive. Those ground rules are:
There were several guests in attendance at this meeting. Mayor Schneider, City Clerk Linda Downs and Beth Noonan of the St. Louis County Economic Development Council, who spoke about several areas where the St. Louis County EDC could be of assistance.
The original Comprehensive Plan (AKA "Master Plan") for Overland was written back in 2001. The purpose of this committee is to review that plan and work out changes needed to fit Overland for today and tomorrow.
All the members of the Committee were given copies of the current plan to review and consider for the next meeting. That meeting is currently scheduled for November 13th, at 7:00 PM. It was explained that the city offered the use of the Council Chambers for future meetings. With 13 members on that committee they will have to work out where everyone will sit as the dais only accommodates 11 I believe. However, this is a disappointing choice. The smaller rooms at the Community Center have excellent acoustics which allow everyone in attendance to hear clearly as well as allow for clear audio recording (as you can hear for yourself in the video below). Without the sound system in place it is extremely difficult for the audience to hear anything being discussed at a normal volume on the dais. It also makes audio recording nearly impossible. While I understand the Committee's desire to meet without taking up a time slot at the Community Center that might otherwise be rented, I hope they take into consideration residents who might attend in the future and their likely desire to hear what is discussed at the meeting.
The most interesting discussion at this meeting was the explanation of the ground rules for the committee. If followed, rules like these could better enable any organization, perhaps even our City Council, to be more productive. Those ground rules are:
- Come prepared for the meetings
- Focus on the big picture not the little ones
- Respect the opinions and comments of others
- No posturing, grand-standing, or personal agendas
- No "war-stories" during the meetings
- A 90% plan is far better than no plan
- We will never be 100% on all things and that's OK
One ground rule above I really liked was "A 90% plan is far better than no plan". Whenever a body, be it a committee like this, a City Council or whatever else considers an issue, there will likely be conflicting opinions on how to resolve it. For most issues, a compromise can be reached that may not be the perfect solution, but it is far superior to no solution. All too often people allow their personal agendas to prevent them from even considering compromise. Frequently when this happens nothing is accomplished.
It is likely that this committee will not find a perfect solution for every issue that every member agrees with. However, if they work together they will probably find agreeable solutions and/or compromises for most. Moving forward with a plan that addresses most issues, even if they end up having to leave out some they could not come to an agreement on, will still benefit the City (assuming we actually use the plan this time around). Ultimately, politics and policy are about negotiations and compromise. Sometimes people forget this, but more often than not when people don't work together to find a middle-ground most can agree on, nothing gets done.
Overall this was an interesting meeting and I am personally looking forward to seeing what this mix of people comes up with. It is nice to see some diversity in viewpoints and I am hopeful that this will result in a more effective and complete Comprehensive Plan in the future. Only time will tell if the city leadership will choose to follow or ignore it as happened with the previous plan.
What follows is the video of that meeting in its entirety:
It is likely that this committee will not find a perfect solution for every issue that every member agrees with. However, if they work together they will probably find agreeable solutions and/or compromises for most. Moving forward with a plan that addresses most issues, even if they end up having to leave out some they could not come to an agreement on, will still benefit the City (assuming we actually use the plan this time around). Ultimately, politics and policy are about negotiations and compromise. Sometimes people forget this, but more often than not when people don't work together to find a middle-ground most can agree on, nothing gets done.
Overall this was an interesting meeting and I am personally looking forward to seeing what this mix of people comes up with. It is nice to see some diversity in viewpoints and I am hopeful that this will result in a more effective and complete Comprehensive Plan in the future. Only time will tell if the city leadership will choose to follow or ignore it as happened with the previous plan.
What follows is the video of that meeting in its entirety:
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you might not be able to see the video below.
Comprehensive Plan Review Committee (CPRC)
Meeting October - 16th, 2007
( 1 hour )
comments are enabled on this article
you might not be able to see the video below.
Comprehensive Plan Review Committee (CPRC)
Meeting October - 16th, 2007
( 1 hour )
comments are enabled on this article
Labels: Appointments, Citizen Committees, Comprehensive Plan, CPRC, Master Plan, Public Works
posted by Overland Sailor @ 11:13 PM 
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2 Comments:
Thanks for the video Sailor, your points on the forgotten art of compromise are well taken. For example, our country never would have completed a constitution without the 3/5th Compromise or Missouri Compromise.
By compromising, the founder settled the issue of slavery for good.
And what about Neville Chamberlain's compromise with Nazi Germany prior to WWII.
The thing is that compromise does not satisfy the idea of Second Bests.
Gravy you point is well taken. Sometimes compromise can go to far, there's no question that's true.
However, when it comes to public policy, more often than not the difference between moving forward or standing still is whether the parties involved allow some give and take to be an option.
The Purzner administration insisted on everything being their way or the highway. As a result nothing was accomplished and the Mayor and most of her supporting Councilperson found themselves in the fast lane out of office (or out of town).
In a democracy, progress generally requires compromise. Sometimes the issue is too critical to budge, sometimes those compromises go to far and sometimes they have unintended consequences. However, most of the time compromise is the only way anything gets done.
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