Reporter Jackie Majerus just wrote this:
A "stakeholders" meeting about the downtown mall site is set for 6 tonight at Bristol Eastern High School.
"We anticipate it's going to be a long meeting," said Frank Johnson, chairman of the Bristol Downtown Development Corp., which is hosting the session.
The BDDC is charged with overseeing the development of the city-owned mall property.
Though contractors are already working to demolish the building – hazardous material abatement is underway on the interior and the exterior teardown isn't far away – there is no plan for re-using the land.
To that end, the BDDC has been soliciting public opinion in a recent series of workshop meetings.
Tonight's session, however, will be aimed at collecting information and ideas from other boards, commissions, city officials and agencies.
"It's not going to be easy to organize," said Johnson, but he said, "I'm excited to hear what other people have to say."
Johnson said that the BDDC will first hear from representatives of the various entities before opening it up to any individual public comment.
"We've done eight so far for the general public," Johnson said.
Given that the BDDC has already had a number of public sessions, Johnson said, it's important for the board to hear from those who haven't yet weighed in.
Johnson said he wants to hear from representatives of the school board, handicapped commission and public safety officials and others to make it "a genuine stakeholder process."
"There are a lot of issues out there," said Johnson.
Another goal of tonight's session, said Johnson, is to update a list of interested parties so the BDDC can stay in touch with them. He said it may be an email list or a newsletter.
"I think it's important that everybody stay involved and part of the process," said Johnson.
They set the meeting for 6 p.m., Johnson said, anticipating a lot of comments.
"I don't want to make it too late," said Johnson. "We could have anywhere from 70 to 100 people there."
That would be 70 to 100 more people than showed up at one of the public sessions, which drew no one except the BDDC, its lawyers and executive director.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
1 comment:
Thought meeting went rather well.There was a lot of excellent ideas proposed by both Committee and Board members as well as the public.It would appear the BDDC and all the stakeholders agree we shouldn't jump at first plan that will get back 5.3 million we spent on the Mall.Rather,we should take the necessary time to develope a plan that will create a "hub"(and surrounding area)of which every citizen of Bristol can be proud.I was very pleased to see the consensus was that this project will define Bristol for the next 10,15,20,25 years.Let's do it right!
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