What's Next For Dove Canyon Plaza

On May 20, 2019 there was a meeting at the Dove Canyon Courtyard with residents of Dove Canyon and the lawyers representing the Dove Canyon Homeowners Association (HOA), which I attended with 150-200 other people based on a rough count. The representatives gave a surprisingly inaccurate summary of the timelines thus far, which was surprising since this was meant to inform the community. He spent a lot of time repeating himself, and frankly, it seemed more like he was trying to kill time to fill the hour and keep questions at the end to a minimum. The questions and comments from the residents were the most informative of the evening. Here are some things that we learned:

• The developer will be submitting plans to the city in early July 2019. This is the point where all the excuses about nothing having been presented to the city will go away.
• It is important that all residents contact the city manager Jennifer Cervantez and let her know that you want the city to do the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and not the developer. What often happens is the developer gets it done and then that is given to the city and they look it over. If you want to ensure an unbiased party doing the review, or at least as close to unbiased as we’re going to get, then the city needs to do it and not the developer.
• The city does NOT have to accept the results of the EIR. In other words, if the EIR says that this is a really bad idea, the city council can ignore this and do whatever they want.
• The developer has spent many tens of thousands of dollars over the last several years sponsoring city events like State of the City and Chamber of Commerce events. Ostensibly this gets you unofficial access as Councilwoman Gamble confirmed to me when I asked her about discussions and she said she was at tables with principals of the developers at these events, but couldn’t recall what the discussions were.
• The treasurer for Councilwoman Figueroa is her sister, and the company her sister works for lists the owner of Dove Canyon Plaza as a client. When I asked the city if she should recuse herself from any votes that involved them, I was told that nothing was before the city and that this wasn’t a conflict of interest. Hmmmm
• Councilman Bealls day job as a real estate attorney is for a firm that engages in the exact kind of actions that led to the ownership change and current efforts going on at Dove Canyon Plaza. When I asked about potential conflicts of interest and if his firm was involved, I was told there were no issues.
• It only takes 3 votes to kill or approve a rezone. Currently the words and actions from three of our city council people, Beall, Figueroa and Gamble, all seem to indicate that they would vote for a rezone from commercial to residential.

There is very little that the citizenry can do as a preventative action other than get a measure on the ballot to put a moratorium on these rezones and/or make any major rezone subject to a citywide vote. The city council could also pass this moratorium and also make it subject to a vote and spare everyone the time and expense and had it been done over 2 years ago when I brought it up, it wouldn’t have been seen as retaliatory, but now with presentations coming shortly, I’m afraid that ship has probably sailed.

It is very important to get involved in this, the Dove Canyon Plaza is not the only shopping center that has been eyed for rezone to residential, the Plaza Empressa where the ARCO is has also been put out for possible sale. Dove Canyon Plaza is just the first salvo and it will lead to financial ruin for our city as we remove a tax base and replace it with something that is a net loss to the city financially. It is important to email your council members and let them know your position, it is important to show up at city council and planning commission meetings and let them know your position, here are the city council email addresses:

BMcGirr@cityofrsm.org
tbeall@cityofrsm.org
CGamble@cityofrsm.org
afigueroa@cityofrsm.org
jholloway@cityofrsm.org