What did surprise me was how...cowardly the Plan Commission acted. First, they prohibited non-residents from speaking during their self-styled "Privilege of the Floor" so that advocates such as myself (I work for an organization serving people with disabilities, and our service area includes New Berlin) were denied an opportunity to speak.
Then they didn't even give MSP a chance to respond to the letter the city staff sent. If you read my previous post on it, you'll know that there were some dubious items in the letter, and I speculated that some of those items were sprung at the last minute. MSP has confirmed that some of those issues were not brought up previously.
The issues addressed during tonight's meeting are new points that were just recently brought to MSP's attention. Tonight's decision leaves no opportunity for the developer to revise the project plans based on these new points.
Essentially, New Berlin brought up some new concerns after MSP submitted their revised plans, but then gave MSP no opportunity to respond to those concerns. But some of those concerns would've applied to previous versions of the project, so if they have not brought up those concerns in the past, they'll be on very, very shaky ground and wide-open to a lawsuit.
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I do hope they challenge this in court. I understand that local politics are inolved, but having passed this project previously and now rejecting it on very shaky grounds seems very subjective. This issue deserve a better process.
The New Berlin Plan Commission, an appointed committee by the Mayor, properly did its job by representing the great majority of its citizens in denying this project.
The costs of this project to the City would have been enormous and would have far surpassed any tax revenues that might have been realized.
I completely agree with the Plan Commission's decision last night.
Anonymous, I strongly disagree with you. This development would not have cost the City of New Berlin anything. The Plan Commission passed this proposed development in May, and it has reversed its decision based upon new requirements for the development without sufficient time for the developer to respond to the requested changes. If a legal challenge to this decision occurs, and the City of New Berlin loses, then the taxpayers WILL pay for legal expenses.
It saddened me greatly last night to hear some speakers refer to people with low to moderate incomes as if they were not worthy of dignity and respect. I hope that some day we can all agree that such classism is not acceptable.
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