Can someone please explain why the Moline City Council is determined to pass an Alternative Dwelling Unit ordinance in the face of enormous opposition from Moline residents?

The proposed ordinance is flawed beyond redemption, and all the proposed tinkering just makes it longer, but no less misguided. At a recent Planning Commission meeting, every Moline resident who spoke was opposed to the ordinance and in favor of retaining our property values, preserving the character of our neighborhoods and maintaining city services.

After hearing the testimony, the Planning Commission voted 9-1 against the ordinance. Yet, here we are, with council willfully ignoring its own commission, determined to salvage a fatally-flawed proposal, prodded on by council members such as 3rd Ward Ald. Mike Wendt, whose supportive comments indicate he is an advocate for someone other than his constituents. His refusal to consider scrapping the ordinance demonstrates an intent to push it through no matter what his constituents desire. Can Ald. Wendt articulate why he is a better judge of this issue than his constituents?

Why not put the proposal on the next citywide ballot and see what the people say? That seems a fairly democratic approach, as opposed, say, to an alderman who insists on pushing through an unwanted ordinance and who has already announced he won’t stand for re-election, so that he’ll have no one to answer to. The reason Ald. Wendt and other Council members don’t want a vote is clear, isn’t it? Moline voters would overwhelmingly reject it.