It Pays to Have Friends in High Places, Especially if You Want to Fast Track Zoning
December 29, 2011
by Mike Scerbo
It pays to have friends in high places. When Stilo needed fast action from their friends at Tusayan Town Halll to place a couple of model home trailers at Camper Village, boy did they get a fast response. It appears when Tom DePaolo says frog, the council starts jumping.
On December 1st, Stilo asked for a Conditional Use Permit Modification to pop a couple of model trailers at Camper Village, in what appears to be less of an attempt to sell new housing and more of an attempt at public relations. Anybody buy one of these units? If so, what’s the difference? It would be placed at Camper Village, which is currently zoned residential, but will be converted to commercial if voters don’t stand up to Stilo and support the referendum vote that would restore the town of Tusayan.
Remember, the Stilo plan is all about getting the locals off the prime real estate at Camper Village so that Stilo can bring in developers to open retail stores and parking garages.
But the big question remains is how does Stilo manage to get a modification in one day! Heck we don’t see anyone else in town getting that kind of fast service. Then again, no one else in town sent influential members of the community on an Italian vacation, bankrolled incorporation efforts, wrote checks to community VIP’s in the form of ‘Win Bonuses’, or help finance the campaigns of four of the five people on the council.
What is even more baffling is that Stilo managed to get a modification of a Conditional Use Permit that was void to begin with. A letter from the Rose Law Group, which represents Red Feather Properties, points out this fiasco. It states in part, “To date the uses under the 2003 CUP have never been fully established on the Camper Village property and as a result, the Town is without the legal authority to act on the CUP Modification request.”
We have also included a link to the Stilo letter asking for the modification and here is a link to the letter in which the town makes such a swift response.
The bottom line is that if Stilo were serious about affordable housing in town, they would use their clout with the Town Council build permanent housing at Camper Village instead of fast tracking a CUP modification so they could put on a dog and pony show.