At last night’s meeting, the Greensboro City Council voted to proceed with plans to annex over 1,000 acres of land. Council members Trudy Wade and Mary Rakestraw voted against the plan. City Manager Rashad Young said “(w)e look at annexation as a tool we can use to help ensure fiscal health and growth.”
The council also voted to “accept” —-not “adopt” the proposed Downtown Area Consolidated Plan. The plan’s pretty much preaches the New Urbanism fad that promotes “strategies for public investment to create an inviting environment for private investment” (emphasis mine), We’re talking the $26 million greenway, a new downtown performing arts center, high-density mixed-use development, supporting the so-called ‘knowledge community’ etc.
The council would have been crazy to lock the city into this plan and wisely voted not to do so. Here’s previous discussion of the distinction between “accepting” and “adopting.” With that in mind, I’ll concede that perhaps the council’s conservative bloc is asserting itself. They’d better; it’s an election year.
