Of Bill E. Couch’s 14 unique cases, 11 have concluded — reached a Planning Commission or ZAP decision — and 6 of those ended in approval at their final hearing: 54.5%.
Postponement is a clock, not a verdict: of the 1 concluded cases postponed at least once, 1 still ended in approval (100.0%).
Counted once per case, not once per hearing: a case postponed several times before approval would otherwise read as several losses and one win.
| Hearing date | Outcome | District | Firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-11-24 | Approved | D2 | Carlson, Brigance & Doering, Inc |
| 2020-11-10 | Approved | D2 | Carlson, Brigance & Doering, Inc |
| 2020-08-25 | Approved | D8 | Carlson, Brigance & Doering, Inc |
At the hearing level every appearance counts, so a case postponed N times adds N postponements and one decision. Hearing-level approval-of-decided is 50.0% (vs the field’s 46.1%) and postponement is 16.7% — both far from the case-level figure above, for exactly that reason. Two stages, two denominators: these are commission-stage outcomes (approve vs. postpone/deny at the Planning Commission or ZAP hearing), not the City Council vote. Once a Commission-recommended case reaches Council it is approved in the high-90s%, so a low commission-stage approval rate reflects strategic postponement, not defeat.