Penrose Hollins Explains Workforce Housing
I got a call back from Penrose Hollins yesterday evening. Councilman Hollins was at the meeting on Thursday night because he was the sponsor of the Workforce Housing Ondinance. I give him a lot of credit for showing up. That was a rough crowd if you are a Councilman from Wilmington.
Mr. Hollins gave me about 40 minutes of his time to discuss the issues that he heard discussed on Thursday. He maintains that there was a lot of misinformation thrown out during that meeting.
Here’s what I think I learned, these projects are in their exploratory phase. They haven’t applied for traffic studies, environmental approval or spoken to the school districts affected. ALL of that would be required before the projects can proceed. Each of these projects will likely have to be addressed individually as they proceed.
Paul Clark (Mr. Pam Scott) proposed a change that would waive a number of the requirements for UDC. This is the reason that access to public transportation, sewer requirements, etc. don’t need to be addressed. This change is what has made the Workforce Housing so lethal.
There is some very bad news, too. The projects now know what they have to do to get passed. As long as they meet the weakened requirements, we may not be able to stop them. I got the feeling from Mr. Hollins that the county council had no ability to really reject an application, as long as it meets all of the requirements that are on the books. They could be accused of acting capriciously if they don’t use objective measures to judge these project’s merits.
Here’s what I propose; Get rid of Paul Clark. Really. Then get rid of Bill Bell (he really brings nothing to the table). The restrictions that have been waived need to be reinstated. We need to fight these projects at every turn with overwhelming force.
I’ll have more later.
Tags: Paul Clark, Workforce Housing
“Paul Clark (Mr. Pam Scott) proposed a change that would waive a number of the requirements for UDC. This is the reason that access to public transportation, sewer requirements, etc. don’t need to be addressed. ”
It’s unclear to me from reading your posts on Workforce Housing if Clarke’s proposed change has been passed into law. (BTW, great work.) If not, what needs to be done to stop it from becoming law. If it has been passed what needs to be done to have it repealed?
George – I think it is law now, but the law was introduced by Pam Scott’s husband. As for what needs to be done to repeal, I’ll try to find out.
I know that it was passed in July– and Penrose Hollins did not vote for it. But, Bell & Powers most certainly did. Clark’s ordinance is the one that caused this disaster. Hollins ordinance was just to adjust UDC. So Hollins really got hammered for something Clark did…
Your only hope to get it fixed is thru Cathcart and Ennis, cause you will not get enough votes on council.. My suggestion vote Clark & Bell out this year. And keep voting council out til we get good people in there
Penrose Hollins is really a pretty descent guy, and he is one of the the ones that drew up resolution against Clark after that email
I have to agree on Hollins. There was one of these bills in July re: ensuring adequate transportation for new communities below the canal. Covered it a bit on my blog. Hollins, I think, voted against the bill, which, I believe was a Scott-Clarky bill.
Hollins is a really decent guy.
I really enjoyed my conversation with him. He is a stand-up guy and really is trying to “do good.”
Here is the bill:
http://www.co.new-castle.de.us/CountyCouncil/Home/showbill.asp?b=O08078
The problem is that the website won’t display the actual bill.
I spoke with Tom Gordon about all of this crap yesterday and brought up what Liberal Geek and I have agreed is the first order of business that the newly elected county government must commit to (whomever it may turn out to be): to use the county’s web site to
1). broadcast live stream of ALL COMMITTEE
and ANY PUBLIC MEETING and have pod casts available for the public benefit.
This kind of day late scramble to figure out what these SOBs are doing has got to be rectified.
Gordon has committed to do this one DAY ONE.
Oh, and to make sure that every bit of legislation passed is fully available as well as all of the financials.
Hey look on comments Oh Fey frustrated posted the whole ordinance and voting record there. I think they did not know how to go to right page.
Gordon will commit to creating ICE-9 at this point he is so desperate….
Council must make the decision to broadcast meetings on their own, they are separate branches of government!
ICE-9, I love it. I have a few people that I’d like to expose to that. Want a popsicle?
HEY Coonsie!
You may not remember that Clark and Coons introduced their exciting new proposal this year where they announced that they were in talks with Comcast, County government was going to get a NEW TEEVEE channel. I am pretty sure I wrote a blog post on it.
I immediately contacted Coons and requested that if there is any expenditure of tax-payer money to be spent on a teevee station, that they had better go ahead and use the equipment that sits idle in the council chambers every other Tuesday evening to broadcast the business of council (they were going to use it as a propaganda mechanism).
Well, that seemed to end that. I never heard another peep about this teevee channel dream.
They don’t want us to have that much access to what they are doing.
So LG, no comment per our discussion?
I think that since Gordon agrees to do this it is worth something more than distain from DL.
First – Lg – excellent coverage. Thanks. Second, I will commit to some time and effort to help undo this clusterfutz if there is a way to get it done. Third – some intuition and an idea – the “done deal” aspect of this, like many Delaware-way injustices may make it difficult, if not impossible to stop the garbage in the pipleline. A possible avenue would be to studiously examine every aspect of how this turd became law. If the County violated some of their own rules in crafting it, or if State law was contravened during the process, no matter how small, no matter how technical, it could force a review of the whole shootin’ match. I know, I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. Anyway, your suggestion about a trip(s) to Chancery Court may not be far off the mark.
No disdain. I agree, we should be able to view ALL council business upon request. Also per our discussion, if our choice is between a guy that is too close to developers and the alternative is a crook, I’m torn.
I know, I know… he learned his lesson…blah, blah. It’s a bad day.
EK, as I’m learning, I’m posting. I am getting all sorts of info, but I don’t have enough context because I have been so disconnected from county politics and the way it “works.” And like I said in my previous comment, the choices seem to suck if Coons has a role in this.
I love the idea of having all county meetings available online. That way changes can’t just be snuck into bills without the public knowing. As for Co. executive I agree I wish I had more choices.
My apologies, the distain was merely from a DL commenter. I didn’t mean to point it at LG.
It is because the public is so disconnected to county goings-on that there is any of this confusion now FOR SURE. Coons is part and parcel of this. Gordon hired a woman who was in it for herself and he is paying a high price for it.
But as far as development and growth, Gordon put in the UDC to slow and control growth after the horrible 1980’s – early 1990’s uncontrolled mess.
Gordon has a record of controlling development. Coons is being given a pass on opening the flood-gates.
Geek, why are they using the term “Workforce Housing?” What exactly does that mean?
Last I heard County channel will go up after the election so critics like you can’t say it was an election ploy….Why don’t you call and ask them? No, much easier to sit here and make accusations…
I like how Tom uses the term guilty so many times in his radio ad, he must be awfully comfortable with the term!
Chet – it is housing designed for families that make between 35k and 60K or something like that. It also known as “Affordable Housing.”
The concept is that young police, firemen, plumbers, etc. would have housing that is affordable to them as starter homes. It is also targeted to support workers that will come here with Base Realignment influx from Aberdeen.
There are some good intentions on this path.
“I love the idea of having all county meetings available online. That way changes can’t just be snuck into bills without the public knowing. ”
Given the opportunity to influence the Council’s position on open and accessible recordings of meetings, I would lobby hard to get their approval.
If elected and I can’t get Council to support on-line recordings, I would work on providing a recording of my participation in the meetings which I believe would be my personal right.
Last I heard County channel will go up after the election so critics like you can’t say it was an election ploy
*
As Geek and I talked about this, he said that there are too many people who won’t benefit from a Comcast channel. Geek says the best way to go is the internet web site with both live streaming and pod casts. If the radio stations around here can do it don’t we all agree that we deserve this service in the public interest?
And please, Tom-who-is-in-the-know, could you enlighten us on whether or not Paul Clark is standing with his statement that broadcasting council meetings would be ‘too expensive”?
Workforce housing is the the violin-playing, heart-stroking title that also goes by First Responder Housing. The name is meant to inspire patriotism a la Homeland Security. Very post 9/11. Very much a play on sympathies….for the middle class! What I heard at the meeting were a lot of people who explained that they had all worked very hard through first and second homes in order to move into the area of real suburban bliss. Why can’t these others work their way up from apt etc.?
Traditionally, affordable housing is meant as a way to stabilize high-rental communities by increasing home ownership in areas with the socio-economic afflictions of poverty and crime.
This new-fangled posing is pure bull created for big Toll Bros etc. to scam the market to cram more housing where ever they have an opportunity.
Our county council with the Coons administration has saddled us with subsidizing people who can afford 250K – 300K mortgages.
Why don’t we leave all of this social engineering to the feds?
An informer voter can not vote for Coons or CLARK! WE seriously need a new County Executive. Tom Gordon has Vision and will stop the unplanned rape of our County by Developers. Mr. Coons has placed us in great danger by eliminating the protections from Tom Gordon’s UDC, he favors unregulated development. The high density unplanned future of New Castle County is before us, but you can
….STOP Mr. Coons and Mr. CLARK from INFILL TARGETING YOU!
What has happened to the Northern Sewer Fund? Apparently, $10 million has been misapplied while building Developer dedicated “projects”. Google – Delaware Way.
Why has Paul CLARK’S Aide been forbidden to tell about his supposed ethical lapses? DUNN Him!!
The County Executive is a Developer, under Mr. Coons’ UDC, Developer ‘projects’ are delivered thru NCC Land Use using our money ‘by right’. Open a Developer’s card where every hour spent gets charged to that ‘project’. We subsidize the destruction of the context of our lives!
Vote Tuesday, for Tom Gordon to restore NCC with Vision!!!
Surely, the DL ‘Big Head” Committee isn’t so obtuse they think Coons and Clark are not working hand in glove or do you now?
They know each other’s agenda and have vowed not to inform the residents of what is really going on out there…..surely, YOU are starting to see more clearly now.
An informed voter can not vote for Coons or CLARK! I went to the Comprehensive Plan “community” hearings. They were Developer loaded and they had no intention of taking an idea from a Native Resident who loves his County Home. Eventually, all of Weiner’s bull was recorded and the Consensus reached using loaded questionaires that led right back to where the Hand behind the scene wanted it.
Coons knows buildings are being built too large. Over GFA and Height limits from the Record Plans. He was personally given the Documents. It’s as if the Developers are running the Show. Tom Gordon will take charge to rebuild his Legacy. Get everyone to Vote for Tom Gordon and Bill Dunn! No excuses!
Nobody finds it strange that this issue went viral the week before the election?
I believe it was Gordon who wanted to sewer the entire area below the canal to allow for development…. sounds responsible to me.
Geezer-in response your post–ironic, isn’t it?
Webcasting and podcasting is so easy these days I don’t know why one would want to go through Comcast.
I recognize and respect the dilligence that folks like Nancy Willing have demonstrated in following county LU matters. I therefore find it hard to disagree with her backing of Tom Gordon.
Just my two cents. I have met Tom Gordon at public events, including an August candidate forum. My lasting impression is that I do not trust a word out of his mouth. His continued insistence that reserves are the same as surpluses offends my intelligence.
My decision to support Chris Coons is largely due to the 100% credibility deficit that Tom Gordon has in my mind.