Remarks by Jim Hefferan
114 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 5
- Play at 38:40
“counterproductive in what we're doing that, you know, I've certainly heard, you know, on the one hand, we're trying to, you know, we want oversight and we want control because I will say, you know, and I think my colleagues on council, as elected officials, you're the ones that hear about things. You're the one that people call, how could you approve that?”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 39:04
“So if it's going to go through and we're going to get the feedback and we're going to get the criticism or whatever, we might as well have control over what we're going to be criticized for. And so that, I think, is a temptation that we want to have a say over a lot of things because if we're going to be the ones that have to answer for it in the community, then we want to have control over that as opposed to, well, it was an administrative decision. Is that really going to How does that go over? On the other hand, if you're too rigid and you have too many of these things, I know I hear that…”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 41:54
“can handle that in your task. Because you can write a great code, but when the state comes along and says, oh, we really strengthened our traffic study requirements and the requirements for TIA or TTM or whatever. And when the state comes along and says, oh, well, that doesn't apply to off-site development. That doesn't apply in this instance. That doesn't apply in that instance. you know, how effective is it, how, you know, a lot of these different, that's just one example, but, and I don't know what you can really do about that, because you're not in the state, you don't control the state…”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 44:07
“And maybe that's where you all can help work us through, because I think I get what you're saying, but I don't think, speaking from counsel, that there's any sort of comfort with the standards as they exist, whether that's sufficient if that's fair to say if we if we as part of this process could become comfortable with those standards or we say all right, this is all well and good. And so you meet these standards, you know it doesn't have to come to us, it can be administratively approved, but I don't think there's that comfort level. based on our experience over the past time that any of us…”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 48:19
“Well, infill you probably wouldn't see. I think based on the amendments we've made though, most major developments that would require a traffic study at a minimum are going to come through conditional zoning now, but probably infill would not require that.”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 52:50
“I think that's a very good point that perhaps you are looking from the outside can, you know, why do you have this requirement? Why do you have this requirement? And if the answer is, well, this is how it was when we got here, we don't really, you know, then that might be an indication that maybe that's prime for, Because I would be willing to bet there's a fair number of things like that, that at whatever point it made sense, but in this, you know, whoever put it in there or drafted it is long gone, and the folks here dealing with it don't really know why it's there or what purpose it serves.”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:04:37
“And I think that's a question. How can the code adapt or be, I mean, because sometimes things, you know, 10 years ago, what's a data center? So obviously you can't have a list of everything and how it's gonna be regulated, but we have run into this three or four times over the last couple years where a certain type of use or business comes along and there are problems and sensitivities and concerns with it, but oh, it's not defined in the code, so it's just treated like a regular old business or whatever, and by the time we realize, whether it's Airbnbs or, yes, tattoo parlors, or food…”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:06:55
“Because the fear is, and I will reiterate this because it seems like it perhaps went over.”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:07:02
“There are no applications for data centers currently pending. There are no plans. There's nothing before us. Nobody has filed an application to bring a data center to Belmont. But we want to have this conversation because... Our fear is what happens if somebody should do that before we have the regulatory framework in place, and then they get the version of the code that was in effect when they filed their application. That's the fear. That's why we partook of the exercise.”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:10:01
“Conditional zoning, special use permits, or say perhaps based on definitions or lack of definitions, something might not be allowed in a particular zoning district where there's a proposal to put it, so we'd potentially have to amend, we'd either have to define it and define which zones it's permitted in or amend those zones to include that now defined use. So to Ashton's example, like the ABC store was only allowed in a certain area zone and the ABC board wanted to put a new store in a different location but that location was zoned it was a different zoning district and the way the code was…”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:11:56
“and downtown might be another place to look at that because i'm not entirely sure based on some of the things that we that have come before us downtown is the zoning districts downtown or perhaps best aligned with our vision for downtown exactly”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:14:28
“I mean, that's probably addressed in the noise ordinance, which is separate from the land development code. Is that correct? I mean...”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:20:17
“Well, I mean, infill is going to be relevant just because, like Alex has said, we're about to be, you know, before too long, we're going to be built out. So, you know, most of the what's going to occur after that would be infill, I would say.”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:41:45
“It's a very fine balance because I'm not a fan of New York City. But, I've been to many cities in Europe. I lived in Vilnius, Lithuania for a couple months. Same concept that I had an apartment and Airbnb and I could walk wherever I wanted, never had to worry about a car. Didn't even really have to worry about public, you know, I could just walk wherever. So I agree with you about walkability. It's just hard because until you have that situation where Everything you need is walkable you're still going to need your car at this point to go to the grocery store to do some other things, and so,…”
City Council · Jul 16, 2026