Remarks by Marcia Allen
19 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 20:09
“Staff question. What is the connectivity that... that staff is recommending that the project is not wanting to, because I obviously missed that in Greg's presentation.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 20:45
“So you already know where I'm going with that, Greg. You said on this commission with me, and you guys know I'm going to go back to where I was when I had fire codes and police before, and I'm going to say that, and I'm going to say this here. Whenever there is a chance for connectivity, I'm always going to be for that because it's not just for, and I know you're saying there's only 54 and all that, but for future, not just for this project, but for future. And we all know how that goes. And whenever we have the chance, it is just not for traffic abatement. It is also for safety of not just…”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 22:01
“I understand that. And sometimes that's just the cost of doing business. Believe me, I do understand. And I'm not trying to be cold or callous, but that's it. But that's also then when we have a flood or when we have any kind of natural disaster or whatever, or anything going on. And it's also good for traffic, too, though. I'm not downplaying traffic, too. But it's also a safety concern. And it's also not just for this development. It's when the next one comes along, and the next one comes along. And we're only adding 12. We're only adding five or whatever. But it's a great planning tool,…”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 47:09
“The staff did not, did I miss it? Did staff address these modification of standards on the parallel parking and the perpendicular parking? I didn't hear any.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:02:42
“Chair, if I might, just to kind of do a general. I'm kind of like, can we stop the world for just two seconds and hold on? You just gave us a lot, and I really appreciate staff and the four or five aldermen that were interviewed and Commissioner Mann that was interviewed. But if we could, like, take a deep breath. I'm looking here at the likely outcome steps needed to achieve vision. Could the planning commission have five or ten minutes to digest this, go home and look at all this before we have this workshop and come back and change Envision Franklin and change Connect? Could we have some…”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:04:24
“But if we live and make it to January, there's some months coming up in 2027, too. This is not going to—I mean, I understand, but whoa, what's so—you understand what I'm saying? This just came up, and if we live to 2027, eh. I'm just saying what's the fire behind this? What money are we going to miss?”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:05:29
“I'd love it. I just don't want us to get this wrong because somebody's in a hurry.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:21:33
“And I'll nitpick you a little bit here. The one thing that I would say to you, and great job, by the way, I was looking through, and this is something that in your listing of going through, under the National Register of Historic Places, when you do the Natchez Street Historic District, something that was left out that's near and dear to me is you don't mention Natchez High School. My parents graduate. My parents went to Natchez High School. That was the county's only black high school. And it just, it was left out. Probably not to you, but just something that really. No, we'd love to make…”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:22:50
“Because when we're dead and gone, nobody will ever know. All right, thanks.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 50:01
“Well, I guess that's kind of where, and I'll say this, I kind of have a, the whole process that we just went through, I have a concern about. We have looked at this three, four, five months now, and to get it, for them to have a workshop on this, and they come to us with all this extra stuff in here, it's really concerning me, especially on the building heights. When we sit here with them, and we had this, and there were two or three Alderman here, and we discussed that one and a half, difference between one and a half, one story, one and a half, and you guys, them to send it back to us with…”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 50:59
“Okay. Because I'm just seeing a lot of amendments in here. I'm like, if we're getting this with amendments, do we not send it to them and then they have a workshop in all of these? It's just I'm seeing, I'm looking at this like I'm seeing some things like it seems like almost for the first time. We've looked at this thing three or four times. Some of these things are brand new, especially like when we're looking at even the commercial recreation building standards and I'm looking at this glazing and all of those. Some of these things I'm looking like, when Jimmy and I were looking at that,…”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 51:45
“That one-and-a-half story stuff, last month we didn't have all that on that one-and-a-half story. Some of that stuff was Greek to me.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 53:58
“I'll second. So a quick discussion. So all gas stations now have to have pitched roofs, except for in line industrial.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 54:14
“So now we're going to allow line industrial to have flat.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 56:39
“to legal, we should always say why we vote against staff, and I am going to, this is one of the few times that I will vote against staff, and I agree exactly what Commissioner Mann said. There are lots of other reasons, but I'll just stick with that for now. All right.”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 58:42
“Yes, I did. So is it being screened? Is that part of your amendment? Yes, it is. Okay. So we discussed this twice. We discussed it at the last one. At the last one, we said behind. I kind of had a problem with it being behind because that was actually a change. The side, I think we're beginning to push it now, to be honest with you, because we're talking about driving lanes. And so now we're blocking up. We're already putting it behind. We're blocking up at a potential driving lane. And now we're going to go to the side. And so on this, I'm drawing the line on that. Now we're getting a little…”
Planning Commission · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 48:42
“So my question would be a little less wordy. I'll keep this to a minimum. I do agree and I do see that you're struggling here with trying to maintain the historic character of this site. I do think, though, that it's a bit much for this site. I know that you have to make a profit, but I'm struggling now with a historic site in my community, okay? As Alderman Burger was saying, though, if you want to preserve historic structures, though, they do have to be used. You've got to open doors, close doors, run water and all that. It will fall into disrepair. So for the owners, I would say, yes, you…”
Planning Commission · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:23:31
“I would love for... I support further defining that half-story. As a matter of fact, I'd love to get rid of it, but, you know, if I had my druthers, as my grandmother would say, I'd love to get rid of that half-story extra. You're getting the average. If you want it more, go to the country and build your seven-story house. Because that's what happens. You get a creep. Well, I want my half-story more than yours. And after a while, that becomes the average. Then you add a half-story, and in ten years, you have five-story houses. So, you know, but... to be more amenable and compromising. Further…”
Planning Commission · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:42:06
“I've got to address this. As I sit here and listen to this, I have a serious issue with these 38 people who did not follow the law. I could care less if it was 30 years ago or 30 minutes ago. We had someone who came in, followed the law, asked for permission for this parking pad, and was denied. We have 38 people who did not come in, who did not ask, and just because their neighbors were gracious enough or happened to like the design, it was pretty, and did not, they're allowed to not, to have no consequences, okay? That's not right. Building neighborhood services, my long guy on one of our…”
Planning Commission · Aug 27, 2026