It was Thomas Paine who said: “That government is best which governs least.”  Unfortunately, that maxim tends to be honored in the breach by most units of government, often to the detriment of everybody but the bureaucrats trying to expand their “empires” and the special interests using government to leverage private benefits. 

So it was good to see the City Council’s Committee of the Whole (“COW”), after much debate Monday night, resist sending a request to the Planning & Zoning Commission for a map amendment that would change the zoning of the former City public works garage at Greenwood and Elm from the current R2 (single-family) to either R3 (2-family) or R4 (multi-family).  

Unfortunately, much of the lengthy Council discussion involved little more than idle chatter and speculation about what type of use would provide the most value to the land.  And, predictably, that led to the misguided decision to have City Mgr. Jim Hock get some “expert” advice – by collecting some appraisals of the land reflecting various types of development. 

Why is that a misguided decision?  Let’s start with it being a totally unnecessary one at this time.  

What purpose is served by the City’s changing the zoning of that property in the current vacuum – with no indication that any developer has expressed serious interest in doing anything with that property?   

As noted in the Agenda Cover Memorandum [pdf] for the April 26, 2010 COW meeting, the City’s 1996 Comprehensive Plan makes no “specific recommendations” for the property “but generally recommends that the single family character of the area be preserved.”  Whether that remains the best recommendation 14 years after the Comprehensive Plan was adopted might well be the subject to honest debate, but for the time being there’s no reason to have that debate or make a change. 

The bottom line is that, as with most things in our economy, the market will decide the value of that property – not some blue-sky appraisals without a willing developer and a willing lender attached to them.  And when the market does decide, it will then be up to the City to debate and determine whether what the market wants is what is in the best interests of Park Ridge. 

The Council has more than enough things on its plate that need attention now.  A zoning map amendment to the City property at Greenwood and Elm isn’t one of them.