Land Use Committee (LUC) met last nigt.  We talked for a bit about the regulation of adult businesses and there should be something on the Agenda for next Monday night allocating about $100,000 for the entire process.  That would include Adult businesses but also a laundry list of other businesses that we might want to regulate.  It’ll take about 6 months to get the whole deal done.  We’ve also directed the City Attorney to get us a second opinion what our options are regarding existing Adult businesses.

Just as significant: We also met with Van Metre and the developer of Prescott Arms last night.  Both projects have come back for redesign.  The Mixed-Use projects that were approved for both places just aren’t going anywhere in the next 5-10 years so they came back to the Council to see if there was a willingness to go with Town House versions of those projects. 

They really are two very different propositions:  the Prescott property currently has an old apartment building that I would love to get rid of – we’ve had problems there in the past.  The owner has worked with the City to improve it but I would be willing to consider a nicely done, mainly brick upper-mid range project (how’s that for adjectives!).  The developer had some engineering drawings and some elevations that looked great.

Van Metre is a horse of a different color.  The redesign is essentially a sketch at this point and it’s empty land.  It’s also right on Center st.  Some of the concepts they showed were pretty nifty but we’ll have to see what they eventually bring to the table.  I’m optimistic as we have a good dialogue and they seem inclined to work with us towards a project that works.

However, for both, the proof is what is finally submitted.  We’ll see.