This is a bit of a tangent from where this site is generally going to go, but it’s worth a mention. The Gazette today featured a front page story detailing how a large turnout of citizens helped spur the Cedar Rapids City Planning Commission to table a developer’s plan for a large development of mobile homes. The rationale for tabling it was, in large part, that it violated the city’s comprehensive plan. One commissioner noted that people “count on” the comprehensive plan when making decisions about investing in homes. An attorney pointed out that the comprehensive plan is “more than a guideline,” that it’s “legally significant.”

Well, this summer MV citizens brought to the attention of the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission the pronounced deviations of the Stonebrook development from the city’s comprehensive plan. But here this point was dismissed not only by developer Dan Stoner and the Mayor (who has often appeared to act more as developer’s advocate than citizens’ representative), but by P&Z members such as Rich Hileman who, in fact, brushed off the comprehensive plan as merely “a guideline.”

Oh the irony.