The Mayor...

Today my sponsor and I traveled to Richfield again to meet with the mayor about the rezoning issue for the nursing home. On the property my sponsor's client is looking to develop, it is currently zoned residential and the development of a nursing home, while assisted living is residential, is larger than the type of residential the area is zoned. When traveling to Richfield for the second time, I began to be much more familiar with the environment, however, in the center of town or historic district, there is not a whole lot of development there (it is hard to believe that is the center of town!). When first meeting the mayor, while he is a very nice man, I realized he was not the most lively of men. His tone of voice was lethargic and he looked as if he had really received no sleep the night before. My sponsor and the mayor began their conversation very friendly and were not really getting to the issue at hand, which was the response my sponsor would receive in attempting to present a development of this size to the town. My sponsor asked many questions, to which the mayor basically talked around using the phrase "well, I can't really directly answer that question but I can give you my perspective" over and over. Never once did the mayor actually answer my sponsor's question or give really any insight into what type of reaction he would receive. The only information he did provide was that there were two plans of attack for having this plan of development be successful. My sponsor could take the approach of filing for a rezoning of the area with the city's planning commission or he could apply for a use variation. A use variation is "grant of relief from the terms of the Zoning Ordinance". The purpose of a variation is to make sure than land that is zoned under a certain rule whether industrial, residential, conservation, etc., is not deprived of potential development that may be beneficial. However, after the mayor mentioned this strategy of attack, he also added that only ONE use variation had been passed for zoning in Richfield since 1967!! My sponsor, who is a very patient and comprimsing individual, looked like he had enough! The mayor and my sponsor made little comments to one another in a nice voice that were dripping with sarcasm. I think if I had not been in the room at the time, the meeting would have been a little more hostile!