Apparently it takes $170K in proffers to win the vote of Councilman Noble.
And if Councilman Noble takes offense at this, great.
But if I’d known I could swing a vote for that little money, I’d have been fund-raising.
Let me do this linearly.
Vienna Town Council approved the 444 Maple West development. The vote on 444 Maple West was 5/2, with Majdi and Springsteen voting against. It would have taken a third “nay” vote to defeat this. The only one not publicly committed to this was Noble.
Here’s the interesting part. At the last minute, the developer for 444 Maple West presented a “proffer” of $170K toward a computerized system for controlling the traffic lights on Maple. And by last minute, I mean, some of the Town Council members hadn’t seen that yet — it was literally only included in the materials they got just prior to this meeting. And hey, guess what, the swing vote on this was Douglas Noble, who would not say yes, would not say no, and just happens to be … a traffic engineer.
Anyway, the Town Council, after much bloviation, passed 444 Maple West. I note that those against (Majdi, Springsteen) stated their case in a minute or two. But those for this change – Oh my God, the rhetoric went on and on. As if they realized they needed to justify themselves. Noble’s justification was particularly inane, and at some point he read the more-or-less the entire introduction to the MAC statute.
Fine. Done. We’ll have this Noble architecture at Maple and Nutley for long after I’ve left this earth.
As icing on the cake, the Town has also signaled clearly that the neighborhoods can take a hike as far as keeping out cut-through traffic. As I understand it, they priced out the “traffic calming” measures that they are going to impose on us, in lieu of actually keeping out cut-through traffic. And that’s why the proffer for dealing with traffic in the adjacent neighborhoods went from $10K to $16K. Because the Town has decided what is best for us. Without, of course, actually consulting with anybody who lives on those streets.
At this point, every property owner along Maple has an approved plan for MAC zoning redevelopment. All they have to do is ask. Because if the Town of Vienna will pass this, they’ll pass anything.
You folks living around Giant Food, you had better take note. And maybe start raising money now.