The community has been struggling with issues regarding flooding since the late 90s-early 2000s. In recent years, developments were approved anyways. As a result of developer-neglect, this community suffered a flood that lasted over 30 days in spring of 2025.
Now the same community is once again being considered for development, with promises that this next developer will fix the issues caused by the last one. 🤨
The community rallied together and submitted a 4 page petition to the regional planning commission. Despite that effort, the commission still approved the plan to move ahead to city council.
📚 This will also be zoned for Rossview Schools, one of which currently stands at 120% capacity.
🏗️ The developer is Chris Blackwell, represented by attorney Larry Ricconi.
The city council meeting was a full house, with some attendees even being turned away due to lack of space.
Many city council members asked questions and were quick to tell community members that the City would not be paying to fix the issues with the road flooding their community.
Councilwoman Streetman noted that Blackwell was there often and that she felt comfortable in the sense that he would be before them again.
Streetman also questioned Ricconi on whether he had represented Blackwell in any lawsuits regarding negligent building. Ricconi said he had not.
Another city council person later mentioned Blackwell had never been sued for negligence in building, which turned out to not be accurate.
🗳️ The vote came down to 7 YES — 6 NO.
A concerned citizen questioned the absurdity of the vote and pulled the campaign contribution packets for the 7 who voted yes.
What they found raised eyebrows. 👀
It was discovered that councilwomen Stacy Streetman and Keri Lovato had taken campaign donations from the developer’s lawyer, Larry Ricconi.
Streetman also sits on the Regional Planning Commission, meaning she voted to approve the initial plan before it even reached city council.
⚠️ Neither councilwoman recused themselves from the vote.
📌 There will be a second vote on this rezoning resolution.
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