2008 BUDGET PROPOSALS [please send suggestions or edits to Jean Mather]

South River City Citizens appreciate the invitation to be part of the City’s budget making proposals.  Some of our concerns would apply to the operating budget and some to capitol improvements.  We will list them in approximate priority order.

OPERATING BUDGET

More transparency is needed in the decision making process.

Examples needed here.

Appointment of a neighborhood ombudsman who could provide equal information on city ordinances to neighborhood volunteers, that is now available to developers who can afford to hire knowledgeable lawyers.

Enforce on-site detention in areas where flooding is a problem, for instance in the current expansion of St. Ed’s campus to prevent the regular flooding in the Sherwood Oaks neighborhood.

Set up an inter-departmental team to amend or create ordinances that will be more protective of our creeks (i.e. the grandfathering clause in the redevelopment ordinance);   Set a time limit to the grandfathering of parking lots to bring them up to the current parking landscape requirements.

Insist on a three dimensional presentation of multi-story proposals to more easily evaluate the aesthetics.

CAPITOL IMPROVEMENTS

To control flooding and to improve water quality in Blunn Creek, the City should purchase the AISD property south of Alpine.

Preserve our trees by increasing the budget for putting utility lines underground, the alternative to the current destructive pruning and spreading of Oak Wilt by the Electric Dept.