Cabarrus Cheap Seats

The City Council has changed their position on the drag strip and I’ve changed my mind on how well our City government is representing us.

While an earlier article put me on the fence about the Speedway fiasco, there are three issues that make me believe it’s time for serious change in Concord.

1. The zoning for the drag strip was appropriate at the time that Bruton Smith started his work.

The Speedway is in what is known as a Public Interest District (PID). That is a special designation that allows for specific use outside of other zoning requirements. There are three PIDs in Concord: Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the hospital, and Concord Mills. The PID application process defines what is appropriate for the zoning of the area.
If you look at the September 14, 2007 version of the ordinance covering the PID process, you’ll find that there’s no specific prohibitions. If you look at the October 05, 2007 version, you’ll find that they jammed “Drag Strip” into the ordinance. Note also that the oridinance changes the name of the speedway back from “Lowes Motor Speedway” in the September version to “Charlotte Motor Speedway” in the October version and references what looks like a 1989 zoning case when the current zoning designation happened in 1999.

So, the City reneged on a deal they made with the Speedway in 1999 by cramming a note about the drag strip in the text of an otherwise very general ordinance.

Why did they need to shoehorn that in there? Well, that brings us to point #2.

2. The Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Board should have been consulted FIRST.

This issue should have gone through the P&Z board and a proper review should have taken place. I see no record of that. If someone knows differently, please let me know; but I’ve been digging until the wee hours of morning here to try to prove what I’m saying as wrong.

The City of Concord had a deal with the Speedway through the PID application process. If a drag strip was not in the original deal, the Planning and Zoning Department could have investigated and taken the appropriate action. If it was included, then the City has to honor the deal.It is unconscionable for the City to bypass a process that insures proper deliberation and a fair hearing for property owners and their neighbors in order to score some votes…especially at the cost of someone’s property rights - whether or not they are a billionaire.

3. Why could a special zoning designation not be made for the Jail project?

If the City Council is so willing to jump through hoops for people who parked themselves next to a Speedway with little regard to the property rights of a business that’s been operating in the area for 47 years, why can’t they do the same for the County? Think about it, the whole reason for the lawsuit between the Jail Trail and the City of Concord is that the City granted a Conditional Use permit to the County to build the jail. If the City simply amended the zoning requirements to specifically allow a jail, the lawsuit would be moot.

They didn’t do this because people who were pro-jail couldn’t fill up the little meeting room they have on Union Street. The well-heeled Jail Trail crowd could prance on down there, put in their comment, and have time to eat a biscotti and prattle on about how their neighborhood is so special in comparison to us groundlings “out-in-the-county”.

Instead, the City Council has decided not to make a stand. They’re leaving something to the courts that could (and should) have been handled locally. Then, they go and bypass a locally-controlled process…all in the name of making certain constituencies happy while losing sight of the big picture.

The challenge of being elected is making unpopular decisions without losing too much of your popularity, like the stands that the County Commission has had to make on the Jail, the TIF, and funding school construction.

Why are the County officials showing more backbone and leadership? I think it has to do with three factors:

1. Partisanship. City elections are non-partisan (or as one of my favorite local Republicans likes to call it “party-secret”). This ostensibly has the people vote on the individual. I’m beginning to believe that’s total hogwash. In going through the orifice of the Primary process, candidates have to go through a very difficult task of proving their ideological stances against a smaller, more informed electroate than you find in November. Also, it keeps the shenanigans to minimum. Earlier this year, Hector Henry was a Republican. He’s now registered as a Democrat. This is actually a recent switch back to the Democratic side. You don’t see this mess at the County level.

2. Gerrymandering. County officials are purely at-large. City officials are both at-large and district based. City Council members are elected at-large; but they can limit their competition because there can only be one council member per district. Given the fumbling of the Speedway situation and not taking a bolder stand on the jail - they may live all around the city; but their focus doesn’t venture too far from the intersection of Cabarrus and Union.

3. Competition. To get on the City Council, you basically have to be appointed. It’s rare that a City Councilman has been ousted in an election. The elections are not competitive mainly because of the two aforementioned factors.

I’ve called for the system in Concord to be reformed on theory - now I’m doing it on performance. The City Council did not act in the best interest of the entire city in the Speedway debacle and I’m one citizen that’s terribly disappointed.