Columbia council hits roadblock on vote for Flat Branch Park Expansion

The Downtown Columbia Leadership Council met Wednesday to vote on a compromise plan for the Flat Branch Park Expansion Project.

In May, the City Council approved a master plan that would eliminate half of the parking spots at a shopping center at the corner of Providence and Broadway. After the vote, several businesses voiced concerns saying eliminating the parking could deter people from coming to their businesses.

The compromise plan the DLC voted on today would keep six parking spaces in front of the shopping center and would create a retaining wall that would block the view of the parking lot from the entrance of the park.

At the meeting, the plan got six votes in favor of the plan, one abstention and one opposition. Even though the majority of the members present voted in favor of the compromise, the group has to have a majority of all voting members, seven, give approval.

This was not possible because there were not enough voting members present to get all seven, and one voting seat currently sits empty.

Even though the plan did not get the approval needed for the DLC to make an official recommendation in favor of the plan to the City Council, the group will outline what happened with the vote to the City Council.

“The clear majority was in favor of the project. How that tangles with what the state statute says as far as quorum issues, that’s for the City Council. I think they can look at the intent of the group today and how they voted and use that as guidance,” said Tootie Burns of the DLC.

“Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the City Council. They’re the ones who make the final decision. So, I always believe more information is better and recommendations are important, but they’re going to have to determine if the compromise issue, if they want to walk back from their original voting for the option one and now go for the compromise option,” she said.

Several members of the Downtown Columbia Leadership Council who voted in favor of the compromise plan said it was not perfect but it was the best thing to move forward.

“I think it would have been a better option to do away with the parking, but I’m interested in the larger part to see the park move forward. So that’s why I supported the compromise option,” Burns said.

Burns said she thinks taking away the parking would have been the best option, but the compromise plan is workable.

Tyree Byndom opposed the plan because of concerns about the practicality for individuals and families to use the park.

“Some of the questions that I asked was really just the practical use, not just the thoroughfare of people coming into the city, but really the practical use of how people would use it,” he said.

“What extra support would it actually bring to the park to be able to utilize just all of that space? And I thought that, even though a lot of stuff has been done, I just thought that we could make some changes and adjustments to that,” Byndom said.

The Columbia CID and COMO 200 have already given their approval on the compromise plan.