I'm trying something different this week by following up on my "what's on council" post from last Friday.

The city council voted 5-2 to not remove Smith Lake from the moratorium area in Chambers Basin. Generally speaking, the council saw no reason to remove one small piece of the moratorium, while leaving the rest of it untouched.

Here is the video of the public testimony and the council discussion on the topic.

Interestingly, one of the two votes to remove Smith Lake came from Joe Hyer (the other was Jeff Kingsbury), who has been one of the most active members of the council on Chambers issues. He was one of the first to tour the area with the neighborhood association.

His interesting argument was that a moratorium is a sledge hammer type tool for the city to use when they're racing against development. He argued that in the time the moratorium has been place, the city has made strides in improving regulation in the area. By removing Smith Lake, a small portion of the total area, the city can test drive its new processes.