Let college try again

Lost in the uproar over the plan has been the reasoning and an omission by the planning commission. Some of the reasoning is sound, some strikes us as silly, and the omission leaves us with the feeling the commission was interested in a quick solution if not the right one.

Commission chair Marilyn Fedelchak-Harley said the primary reasoning was that the proposed lease of spaces in the Verizon lot was too loose. The 10-year lease, with three renewals of 10 years each, could have been canceled by either party with 90 days notice. This escape clause understandably worried the commission.

Less understandable is Fedelchak-Harley's assertion about out-of-town visitors having trouble finding the Phyllis Litoff Jazz Studies Center from the Verizon lot. The building can be seen from the lot, more readily than from some of the angled parking spaces proposed on Tappan Square.

The omission deals with the commission's failure to ask for other alternatives before mandating the trees come down. Couldn't the commission consider a hybrid of the proposals to build spaces in the curb lawns of South Professor Street that would satisfy the objections of the police, fire, and public works departments? Couldn't the college propose building some of the spaces along the south side of West College Street in front of the Conservatory? Couldn't the commission have instructed the college to negotiate a firmer lease?

We realize the spaces must be constructed prior to the college receiving an occupancy permit for the jazz studies center, and a grand opening is scheduled for May. But the college has tried in good faith to present alternatives; the commission should now work with the college in good faith to create a plan that will make everyone happy.