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297 developed on East Jefferson and along 10th Street, and the CSX property had been purchased by the City and office space designated with a special desire to attract downtown medical offices. "When all of these points of view were put forth to the Council, there was vigorous discussion. Ultimately, the vote was 3-2 to leave the Land Use Plan as is, with the expectation that nothing would happen for a while. "Within a year there was a request for a change in zoning by owners on Grove Avenue. Although recommended by the Planning Commission, the request for a rezoning died in a parliamentary move because there was no second to the motion for rezoning. The owners subsequently sued. However, because they had let too much time go by before going to court, their case was thrown out. "A year later, they reapplied for the rezoning. This time, af'rer going through the Planning Commission the rezoning came to Council in January 1994. At least one Councilor who had supported the Land Use remaining as office questioned whether or not we could deny the rezoning. Others expressed the point of view that as long as the Land Use Plan -- the road map for zoning -- said office, the request for rezoning was reasonable and there would need to be some extraordinary reason to deny the rezoning. This time, the rezoning passed. "At the same time, recognizing that the "road map" -- the Land Use Plan -- remained office, I offered a resolution requesting a change in the Land Use Plan to conform ~vith the residential zoning. This resolution was drafted to ask the Planning Commission to hold a public hearing on the Land Use Plan amendment for this block. It stated all the reasons that this is desirable. "I spoke with individual members of the Planning Commission and the Chair to explain our reasons for this request. We understand that a majority of the Planning Commission believe the Land Use Plan should stay the same. Reasonable people may disagree over this, and by our resolution, we were suggesting that we thought the issue warranted another look. "The Planning Commission responded informally that they wished to take this up in the Comprehensive Plan review, which began this spring. However, that review, we understand, will not be complete until next spring -- a year from now -- and so informally, we had told the Planning Commission that this would not work. This is where the story varies from the account in the Daily Progress. Rather than wait until we are faced with a rezoning that we cannot legally deny, we felt it better to be proactive and announce now that based on alt the evidence we have before us, we believe the Land Use Plan should be changed to residential. "Reasons: Finally, to reiterate my reasons, which I have tried to articulate each time this issue has been before us. "We want to preserve and expand residential housing in the City. We want to attract homeowners who will come to the neighborhoods, fix up the houses, and live in the City. We want to keep our existing residential zones and build higher density office space in our areas zoned for business and office. High Street and 1 lth Street are buffer areas to the neighborhood. So are portions of East Jefferson and parts of 1 lth Street and Locust. These buffers exist without sacrificing another block of fine residential housing. "We want to preserve the historical and cultural resources of the City. This block was developed by a civil war hero, George Marshall, who lived on Grove. We don't want to lose more of these houses. The block is mentioned on pages 25, 27 and 28 of the 1906 edition of the Daily Progress. If you read the appendix of that volume, you will see that many structures have been destroyed to make way for progress -- most of them commercial in this edition but many were residential -- home ofR. W. Duke, East High and Locust (now occupied by a medical building) residence ofW. J. Yson (page 16), now part of Martha Jefferson Hospital Parking lot); Rawlings Institute/St. Anne's, 10th and East Jefferson -- medical offices; the historic Cabell House across the tracks from Union Station (Merchants Tire); Chancellor residence (next to St. Paul's Church); the Carter House (Queen Charlotte's hotel which was demolished -- Peyton and Dabney lots). Each of these in time gave way to progress, as we define it.