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Residents tell council development approvals stalled for years; another speaker urges stronger code-enforcement action against illicit businesses
Summary
Two property owners described a long effort to secure development permits and said changing staff requirements and repeated requests for new studies forced them toward sale. A separate commenter said alleged illicit businesses on his property have persisted because code enforcement has not followed city procedures and asked council for action.
During the public-comment period on July 1, two speakers described prolonged difficulties working with city planning staff to secure permits and approvals for a commercial/residential parcel, and a third speaker raised complaints about code enforcement and licensing procedures.
Sharish Shah said she has owned property since 1991 and sought to add a small commercial building in 2004. Shah said the planning rules and staff requirements have changed repeatedly since she began the permitting process, that consultants' reports were deemed out of date, and that staff advised selling to a larger developer who could afford the city's conditions. "Now we are trying to sell the parcel," Shah said, and described repeated delays and evolving requirements that have discouraged buyers.
Sandy Shaw, who said she is connected to the same property, told the council the family spent more than $200,000 on reports and fees and was still unable to complete the project. "We were discouraged," Shaw said, adding she and her husband are engineers who have operated local businesses for decades and are now struggling with high payments after moving operations elsewhere because they could not proceed on the property.
Later in public comment, Brian McMillan said the city had shown "persistent intentional indifference to corruption and incompetence by city officials," described citations and alleged unlawful business activity at a property he owns and asked the council to instruct the city manager to direct code enforcement to follow the procedures specified in city ordinances. McMillan said he will return to future meetings with updates.
City staff acknowledged the comments and told the speakers staff would follow up using the contact information provided on speaker cards. No formal council action was taken during public comment; council members asked staff to meet with the speakers after the meeting to review options and next steps.
