Auburn City Council members were greeted at one of their biweekly meetings Tuesday night, Aug. 4, by an abnormally large majority of citizens.
The crowd gathered to voice their opinions and concerns on the council's voting to extend the current moratorium on apartment construction on the University Service district east of South College Street.
The council voted for the moratorium to be extended another four months for the east side of South College Street.
Ward 3 councilwoman Beth Witten expressed her concern with the moratorium recommendations presented to the council July 27.
Witten said the eight days given to the council wasn't enough time to fully understand the depth of the presentation by city planning, and the council would be "acting with haste and disregard to process" by acting without regard to public input.
Witten asked that the voting be removed from the agenda and requested the current moratorium be extended another four months.
Ward 5 councilwoman Lynda Tremaine moved to keep the ordinance on the agenda for consideration.
"We know why it's in place, we know why the recommendation is coming up for it to be citywide and I would like for it to just stay on the agenda as is for consideration," Tremaine said.
The council voted to remove the ordinance in a 6-3 vote.
Anna Solomon was the first citizen to address the council to voice her support of the proposed recommendations by the city of Auburn planning department for the moratorium and downtown master plan.
"They need more time to study the developments and make the changes," Solomon said. "What I see is that the planning department needs more time, and I think they deserve to do that. The time period they've requested is very short, when you look at the long-term consequences."
James Gilbert spoke on behalf of his wife and her business partner, who own Ellie boutique, to address parking issues and traffic flow that need to be considered in the downtown master plan.
"Business-wise, we're against the moratorium," Gilbert said. "We all want Auburn to look good, but there will never be 100 percent agreement on this."
He said he had spoken with other business owners on the matter, and said the urban core was in favor of downtown rejuvenation.
Stone Ray, incoming freshman in architecture and Birmingham native who has lived four years in Auburn, spoke against a seven month moratorium and said he was against it being citywide.
He suggested downtown be reset to replace places that only invite cars, such as gas stations, drive-through restaurants and banks with five lanes of drive-through.
"I think that some of the words like towering, colossal and mega-projects are very appropriate for six stories, and it may be that we need to lower [the height] 75-60 feet, that's fine," Ray said. "I just don't think it would take seven months ... I want to stay here after my five years at architecture school, but if Auburn cannot build a walkable downtown for the future, then I won't stay here."
Ray said he is excited to see what the city will build for downtown and hopes that it is something he can enjoy in the future.
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