Chagrin Sun on Council, Sterling Lakes and The Pointe

Earlier this week, I was interviewed by Chagrin Solon Sun reporter Faith Hampton regarding my thoughts on proposed changes to the agreement between Sterling Lakes LLC (parent company is Forest City) and Pepper Pike.  You can read the resulting article here (my quotes are after the jump aka "read more"). Overall, the article does a good job outlining the concerns, including for people who are not familiar with this current situation.

For more background, this 12/2309 article from the Chagrin Valley Times does a good job detailing the changes desired by the developer: to increase the number of townhouse units to be built but decrease the selling price by making the units less expensively and conform to minimum square footage, with the hope that they will appeal more to buyers in a lower range, with the idea that there are more buyers for a lower range; if your first thought is, "huh?", join the club, but do read the articles to understand the proposal.

The CVT editor published this commentary on 1/7/10 on the same topic in that same edition. He did a nice job role-playing the different interests involved.

Please leave your thoughts, questions and comments.  Here's the portion where I'm quoted:

City Council has yet to make a decision on whether to accept an amended plan from Forest City Enterprises for the Sterling Lakes development or to keep the original plan without modifications....

The issue was tabled until next month, as the committee requested Hartt create a thorough presentation of the new plans for the project so the council can make a final decision. Still, newly-elected councilwoman Jill Miller Zimon had questions concerning resistance to buy into a project when it has stopped and has no date as to when it would start up again.

“I was stunned when they said they were going to ask for another month,” Zimon said. “I do believe that Gerber is listening and I think he hears us. The fact that he asked us to put it off a month instead of saying ‘just believe us’ tells me that he is taking this idea seriously. I don’t know if that would result in me wanting to approve this or not.”

Zimon said she doesn’t want the city to send a bad image to the residents by making them feel their concerns are being pushed aside.

“It’s a very difficult decision,” Zimon said.

That's an understatement actually, from my perspective on Council where I have to consider all stakeholders and not just problems today, but the future.

Residents, what do you think of the proposed changes?