{"id":11538,"date":"2014-12-16T16:24:45","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T21:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=11538"},"modified":"2014-12-17T18:50:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T23:50:23","slug":"danville-city-council-live-12162014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/16\/danville-city-council-live-12162014\/","title":{"rendered":"Danville City Council – LIVE! (12\/16\/2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: This article is now complete.<\/p>\n

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Tonight’s LIVE! coverage is brought to you by Texas Steakhouse. Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 gift card for free! Buy a $50 gift card and get a $10 gift card free… and a free beer mug! Mention SouthsideCentral when you’re dining and get a voucher good for a free appetizer!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tshbannertop\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We’re back in the saddle here at SouthsideCentral and we’re heading to Danville City Hall for tonight’s City Council meeting. We’re the only place where you can know what’s happening LIVE! We’ll have photos, commentary and happenings throughout the night. We’ll add bonus coverage when we get home as we edit the story. Be sure to refresh the page for the latest coverage.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We’ll start at 5:30 PM with a special work session to discuss a new comprehensive housing study that was just completed by a consulting firm. We’ll have a (hopefully) short<\/del> business session at 6:30 PM with the only real issue being a rezoning issue for some housing on Stewart Street. There was some citizen opposition at the Planning Commission meeting but it was approved on a 6-1 vote. We may have some opposition speakers tonight<\/del>. We had a lot of opposition speakers tonight. The business meeting will wrap up with approval of the latest Old West End design guidelines. We’ll move across the hall to the work session after that and deal with issues on an alleyway & more talk about procedures for council meetings. There will be a closed session after that.<\/p>\n

Let’s get started with the housing study.<\/p>\n

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According to the study, Danville should focus their housing improvement efforts on the areas that would show the most return. Danville Estates, forget it. Nobody drives through there.<\/p>\n

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Lots of citizens here tonight. They didn’t stay for the business meeting. Fooey on that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gary Miller is running this work session as Vice Mayor.<\/p>\n

The consultant says that 1800 employees within 1\/2 mile of the hospital and daily visitors account for $34 million in retail spending leakage. He said he interviewed Eric Deaton before he left the city and he was about to go grocery shopping in Greensboro. I wonder where he’ll shop for groceries in the Kingsport area? The consultant advises that the city has to get tough on “toxic homeowners” with constant police and code enforcement efforts to make it too expensive for them to continue to own those properties. “Bad landlords find bad tenants. Good landlords find good tenants.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s head upstairs to the business session. Sherman Saunders is out tonight due to a friend’s death. Larry Campbell leads the prayer. Public Comment time. Duke Energy’s Davis Montgomery is here for his monthly update regarding the coal ash spill.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He reports on two ecological studies. One says the river’s mussels were not harmed. The second from NCDNR says that the river rated “excellent” both above and below the spill. I CALLED IT!<\/p>\n

We’ve got a good crowd in opposition to the Stewart Street rezoning. The Riverwalk Trail purchase is finalized. Moving to the Stewart Street rezoning. Nine items on the same properties have to be heard and acted on separately. Gus Dyer Jr. (he of the $30K arrears in property taxes) speaks for the applicant. Weirdly, the applicant never speaks.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nHe’s saying that this project will be high end apartment rentals. He’s taking a preemptive strike on traffic issues since the opposition is ready. Dyer is prepared on this. Before this started, I told the opponents that they had an 8% chance of getting this rejected. Harold Garrison says 20%.<\/p>\n

Larry Campbell challenges the traffic issue. Dyer offers examples of why he believes that’s not the case. Melanie Vaughn of 235 W. Main St. speaks against the rezoning. She asks for opponents to stand and about 20 do.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nShe’s offering alternatives, but that’s not in her scope to do. She says “I apologize for taking more time than I expected” but she reads that from a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

Jack Garrett speaks next.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

He makes his opposition. This guy has a great radio voice!<\/p>\n

Next speaker is surprisingly in support of Keith Walden’s proposal. He says he’s glad for higher end housing.<\/p>\n

Next speaker says she’s already scared to let her 4-year-old play on Stewart St. due to the traffic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Public hearing closes and the motion to approve is on the floor. Fred Shanks asks for clarification. Ken Gillie answers his questions. Alonzo Jones is talking about remanding this back to the Planning Commission. Dyer was a little cocky and I’m wondering if that’s costing him some. Dyer points out although there’s a crowd in opposition, ther were people sending in the postcards of support. Dyer correctly says his job isn’t to make the opponents happy, it’s to educate Council. Bingo.<\/p>\n

Buddy Rawley asks if the possible cul-de-sac is not an issue tonight. Ken Gillie says no, it is not.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

8:00 PM – Sherman Saunders arrives and takes Gary Miller’s regular seat.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Denice Thibodeau isn’t here from the Register & Bee tonight. Vicky Morrison is reporting tonight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Discussion continues. Larry Campbell seems to be against the rezoning due to traffic concerns. Lee Vogler makes a substitute motion to remand this back to the Planning Commission. Rawley opposed sending it back but the remanding will occur.<\/p>\n

All of the items are sent back to the Planning Commission on an 8-1 vote with Buddy Rawley voting no each time. He was ready to vote.<\/p>\n

Around the horn time is next. All give holiday best wishes.<\/p>\n

Work session is next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The alleyway provision will be approved at the next council meeting in January. The “rules for Council”\u00a0 have been gutted so much from Lynchburg’s stupid 20 pages that the only thing of note is that speakers will be limited to five minutes.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s closed session includes human resources department head Sara Weller, so I’m guessing it’s about the Utilities department scandal.<\/p>\n

That’s it for three meetings in one night. We’ll have a BreakDown article on this meeting later in the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: This article is now complete.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s LIVE! coverage is brought to you by Texas Steakhouse. Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 gift card for free! Buy a $50 gift card and get a $10 gift card free… and a free beer mug! Mention SouthsideCentral when you’re dining and get a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[58,13,20,22,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-danville","category-livecentral","category-newscentral","category-opinioncentral","category-politicscentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-306","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38767,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/06\/danville-city-council-live-9616\/","url_meta":{"origin":11538,"position":0},"title":"Danville City Council – LIVE! (9\/6\/16)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"September 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"(Editor's Note: A new phone, a new version of WordPress on the phone, incompatible settings on the website, photos archived to somewhere that I can't find and a Facebook Live attempt that looked like Amateur Hour. That's the reason that this article is a complete mess. On Wednesday night, I'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/wp-image-1554240421jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/wp-image-1554240421jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/wp-image-1554240421jpg.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/wp-image-1554240421jpg.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9173,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/07\/01\/danville-city-council-live-712014\/","url_meta":{"origin":11538,"position":1},"title":"Danville City Council LIVE! (7\/1\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"July 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We have three articles in the \"Must Write\" columns and more that need editing, but do you think that's going to stop us from having back-to-back-to-back LIVE! articles? Not a chance, baby! SouthsideCentral is LIVE! at Danville City Hall for tonight's Danville City Council meeting. You know what to do.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17069,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/16\/danville-city-council-live-21616\/","url_meta":{"origin":11538,"position":2},"title":"Danville City Council – LIVE! (2\/16\/16)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Editor's Note: This article is in editing mode now. Things can and will change. I'll let you know when the article is finished. SouthsideCentral is LIVE! at tonight's Danville City Council meeting. The meeting starts at 7 PM, and it should be over quickly as there are only three non-controversial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/AhydRDX.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/AhydRDX.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/AhydRDX.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/AhydRDX.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11391,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/02\/danville-city-council-live-1222014\/","url_meta":{"origin":11538,"position":3},"title":"Danville City Council \u2013 LIVE! 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We\u2019ll clean up the article in the editing process when we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/urDWaMY.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/urDWaMY.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/urDWaMY.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/urDWaMY.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42699,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/20\/danville-city-council-live-92016\/","url_meta":{"origin":11538,"position":4},"title":"Danville City Council – LIVE! 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