Quick update.  Recently a resident emailed the City Council expressing unhappiness that the City was processing the Lafayette Marketplace development plan instead of just voting to not annex the property.  The resident got a response from City Staff claiming that State Law required the City to process the development application before deciding on annexation.

A long and tortuous email chain followed in which Barbara and I repeatedly challenged City Staff on their assertion about State Law and the Staff repeatedly tried to defend their assertion.  In the end we asked, nicely, for a citation to the Law.  The best the Staff could do is point to a statute that permits - as distinguished from requires - the City to consider a development application in connection with deciding on annexation.

Ultimately, we received a very detailed and explanatory email from senior Planning Staff that allayed our fears that the development proposal was being “railroaded” to swift approval in closed door meetings.  Several senior Staff and the entire City Council were copied on the email chain creating widespread awareness of our concerns.  We are not sharing the actual emails so that the Staff will be comfortable continuing to communicate with us.

We still have a long way to go but we have new confidence in the Staff.

We still need more Lafayette signatures on the Petition (508 at last count) and we need people to show up at Planning Commission and City Council Meetings to express their concerns.  

We CAN do this!