New Manhattan mayor and lengthy annexation discussion

Manhattan welcomed Linda Morse as its new Mayor last night in a packed City Hall.

Morse says she’ll be the third female mayor in-a-row, which is unique from a historical perspective. and Morse encourages women to run for office and sign up for City boards.

Linda Morse has served on the Commission for over two years. She replaces outgoing Mayor Usha Reddi who has served for over four years.

 And in a wild night that went into the early morning hours, the Manhattan City Commission rejected a plan to rezone a portion of a 124 acre tract of land to allow for a neighborhood shopping district in Unit 2 of the Stonehaven subdivision. 
Surrounding property owners were concerned with increased traffic flow, light pollution and crime that a shopping district could potentially bring to their neighborhood.

Rich Seidler with Commercial Real Estate Services, represents the developer, Bayer Construction, and says he understands the neighborhood’s concerns. However Seidler indicated  the land involved the project has been in the family for nearly a hundred years and while they have an absolute right to develop it, they get the neighbors’ concerns. He stressed the developer had tried to be inclusive rather than exclusive in its plans though.

Some area homeowners, many of whom showed up Tuesday , do not agree with the portion of the plans that allow for the development of a neighborhood shopping district. As they see it, businesses, including convenience stores and restaurants , could negatively impact the safety and well being in what is currently a family-oriented neighborhood.

Homeowner Rich Wartell says the project doesn’t take into consideration the considerable investment that residents have made in the area.

The City rejected all C-2 rezoning aspects included in the initial request. In order to do so, the Commission needed a super-majority vote of 4-1 to override the Planning Board’s earlier recommendation for approval of the entire project. After a considerable discussion regarding the Commission’s legal options in approving a portion of the initial request, a super-majority vote of 4-1 was reached with Karen McCulloh as the sole nay vote.