The Henderson City Council could decide how to proceed tonight on an issue it was quite happy to postpone two months: a phaseout of auto repair facilities and junkyards that predate and don’t conform to the city’s zoning ordinance.
The amortization ordinance was one of the last major projects of the Planning Board under the guidance of Grace Smith as planning director. By coincidence, she left the Henderson government for a planning position in Durham the same month that the City Council tabled the ordinance until the new fiscal year.
As written, the ordinance would affect a few dozen auto-related businesses in the city and its Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction. Because the zoning ordinance bars auto repair shops and junkyards in residential zones, the amortization would force an estimated 12 businesses to move or close within three years. Others would have to make improvements, such as fencing and paving, to bring their shops into compliance with the zoning ordinance.
The prospect of being forced to close or spend lots of money prompted resistance among auto repair shops and wrecker services. They turned out in force for a Planning Board hearing in April, but that board unanimously voted to send the proposed ordinance to the City Council on May 2.
Facing a complex, controversial ordinance proposal in the middle of work on the 2005-06 budget, the council decided to wait until today to decide how to proceed. The council could schedule a public hearing on the ordinance for its July 25 meeting, or, more likely, it could send the proposal to a council committee for further study.
The most time-consuming item of the night could be the presentation of the proposed Weed and Seed anti-crime area for council approval. The Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence is steering the application for the federal designation, which lasts five years and involves a comprehensive, communitywide approach to fighting crime.
Weed and Seed isn’t likely to face any opposition tonight, but the program is so detailed that it could take VOICE representatives, including Williams, some time to explain what it would do and how the application process works.
Overall, unlike the council’s meetings in June, tonight’s agenda lacks a dominant issue. But it has several recurring issues that could spark longer-than-expected discussions:
* Energy Systems Group will supply an update on the energy savings analysis that is the key to the decision whether to sell the Municipal Building and consolidate the city government in the Operations & Service Center just down Beckford Drive.
* City Attorney John Zollicoffer will present a resolution to move fiduciary responsibilities for the city’s $15.6 million in 2001-series water and sewer revenue bonds from the Bank of New York Co. Inc. to the Bank of New York Trust Company National Association. Although this item appears to be a minor administrative matter, anything involving water, sewer and debt has the potential to produce strong feelings on the council.
* Two “brief discussions” will address how the council wants to proceed on issues that arose during the long budget process this spring.
First, the council must decide how to address the possibility of shifting to weekly curbside trash and recycling collection. That matter could go to the Public Works Committee, chaired by Ranger Wilkerson.
Second, the council has a range of issues related to implementing the budget. Those issues could be handed to the Finance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, chaired by Bernard Alston.
In a connected matter, City Manager Eric Williams will review with the council a draft letter responding to the Local Government Commission. The LGC, a state agency that answers to State Treasurer Richard Moore, sent Henderson a letter Feb. 21 about its low fund balance and the need for a corrective plan. The city waited to complete the 2005-06 budget before preparing its response, which must be signed by the mayor and all eight council members.
* Council member Mary Emma Evans has a request regarding city vehicles with air conditioning.
* Council member Elissa Yount is asking for information about the $653,000 Community Development Block Grant project on David Street.
The council meeting will start at 7:30 tonight at the Municipal Building.