Community Issues - Special Laws

Resolution 47-21, PUD - Woodholme County Club


Sponsor: Patoka
Benefitted: Woodholme Country Club

Introduced Apr 5, 2021; passed May 3

Although this is technically not a special bill, I am listing it here to highlight the problem with these. As titled, it is to approve a "review", that is, allows the County staff to examine the plan and decide whether or not it should be approved. However, it has been obvious for years that county staff treats these as "already approved by the Councilmember", so they can not object. Once the Resolution is passed, it's pretty much a done deal.

In this case, the PUD is for a 2 acre part of Woodholme Country Club which the Club wants to "lease" for a bank. As the Resolution notes, it is currently zoned Residential and the purpose of the PUD is to get around the use and density limits imposed by the zoning.

During CZMP 2020, this was part of Issue 2-018 which sought BM AS zoning for 5.38a. Due to community objection, the upzoning was not granted. This Pud is an end-run around that denial.

Comments on PUDs: These have been routinely used to get around zoning and deny citizens the opportunity for meaningful review and input. It is obvious that the proper use of PUDs should not include such small parcels and they should never be allowed to negate the underlying zoning. A proper use would be for a large area which included multiple zonings and was being planned for multiple uses, where the uses and densities allowed by those various pieces could be rearranged to allow for a more efficient and useful arrangement. There aslo needs to be a much stronger message that the Council, by passing such a Resolution, is not approving the project.


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Updated 25 July 2021 by MAP