9/23/08 City Council Meeting Results

Sanity prevails on Ogden's Historic 25th Street

By Bill C.
Historic 25th Street wins 5-2. Yes folks, own responsible grown up Council quelled the threat to losing the Historic designation of our only real successful downtown endeavor. The only ones voting in favor of this silly ordinance change being Brandon Anally Stephenson and of course the biggest benefactor of the lying little matty movement to date, Blaine Johnson.

The most remarkable thing about this was the wording of the ordinance, it essentially would have eliminated all future Council oversight, by removing the one restriction that was a zoning issue -- The 45 ft. height restriction. This would have allowed all future infill to be done at the discretion of the Landmarks Committee and the Planning Department. Both of course hand picked mayoral appointments.

Of further insight is the revelation that what these guys had planned for the old Windsor would not have qualified for historic designation, despite the landmarks members' rather disingenuous pleas about their strict adherence to all guidelines, those being of course Bernie and G-train.

All the Council voting in opposition to the ordinance commented that to do so would jeopardize the historic designation, and they weren't willing to do that. Thank your lucky stars that there are mature long range thinkers on our Council.

One other tidbit I picked up from a very credible attendee at tonight's meeting, but I'm still not sure that it is in the Historic District boundaries: the icecicle is over the 45 ft. height restriction. Could it be we've been saved?

The floor is open for further reader comments.

Update 9/24/08 6:54 a.m. MT: Ace Reporter Schwebke chimes in this morning with a pretty decent writeup about last night's meeting:

• Ogden rejects height amendment