Zenner "Our failures have left carnage at the edge of your neighborhood"





-- In stunning public admissions about 18 months ago, City of Columbia development services managertold an audience that City Hall had "failed" to serve the public in its oversight of downtown student apartments."We've failed you, and I admit it," said Zenner, who oversees large construction projects for the city's Community Development Department."Our failuresat the edge of your neighborhood," he told members of the North Central Columbia Neighborhood Association (NCCNA), which represents the area around Columbia College next to downtown.Zenner was responding to questions about the Odle family's Brookside Apartments on Walnut Street that overshadow -- literally -- several blocks between Orr Street and College Avenue. Butted up against the street, the apartments have created traffic and pedestrian snarls since their construction.Repeating the word "failed" several times, Zenner cited the city's; andin the rush to build thousands of student apartments.Zenner made the remarks at a Sept. 2014 "Neighborhood Congress" at the Columbia-Boone County Health department.His admissions have renewed relevance today, as the Columbia City Council considers a brief moratorium on student housing downtown. Mayorwas elected in April on a platform Zenner's "carnage" comments reflect: that City Hall has "cannibalized" central city neighborhoods to provide student apartment infrastructure.The neighborhood planning process Zenner and fellow department memberdescribed was littered with, starting with Zenner's opening remarks that the central cityCity plannerunveiled a map of the central city as a "target planning area", prompting attendees to wonder if city administrators weren'ton land eyed for future development."When my neighbors see city managertelling the newspaper what he plans to do with the Ameren site,," said former NCCNA president and Downtown Columbia Leadership Council memberMatthes -- who said he wants to use the city's "extra cash" to buy the vacant site across from Orr Street Studios -- hadn't consulted any neighbors, Fowler explained, and haswhat a neighborhood-driven plan for the area -- in the North Village Arts District -- "would look like."Zenner said he understood Fowler's concerns, and that city planners would "definitely work with the public" to develop an Ameren site plan. His words were, as he pled his case before the skeptical crowd."Deputy city managerjust accepted a consultant's report that did nothing but badmouth the central city ," this writer told the planning staff.From St. Louis-based, the report labeled much of the area a "to the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the public," under Missouri law the first legal step toward thesuch as TIF."Why all the bullseyes?" I asked. Zenner dodged the question with biographical details. "Greed" turned him off to his former career in private development."I didn't just want to do this for the profits," he said. Neighborhood planning, he concluded, will require "a commitment from everyone.