City Councilmember Todd Gloria, came through for the community of Be-Hi (Between the Heights) yesterday morning as he led his peers to deny Our Lady of Peace (OLP) a re-hearing of their same old unchanged McArdle Plan. Councilmembers Sherri Lightner, Marti Emerald and David Alvarez voted with Todd to deny waiving their rules to allow OLP a “do-over” on their previous hearing results.
Both Councilmembers Lightner and Emerald spoke out very passionately against waiving the council rules for OLP when they have failed to follow council instructions to work with their neighborhood. Only Paul Robinson, OLP’s attorney, and one single board member from OLP attended and spoke. Mr. Robinson requested a continuance of the hearing until a date in May, due to the school being on Easter Break at present. Carl DeMaio really pushed hard for the continuance, but his effort failed. Dan Sullivan, Ross Lopez, Joy Dougherty and Mark Ballam (all Be-Hi neighbors) gave the organized 15-minute presentation on behalf of the community and did a phenomenal job of simplifying the rather complex issues of this case.
It was reiterated over and over that the community would be happy to see OLP back at City Council when they are ready to work with their neighbors on an adaptive reuse true Modernization plan for the good of both the school and the community… one they could all get behind.
The full video of the hearing will be up on the city website today.
