To Appeal, or not to appeal. That is the Question.

The decision to appeal the IWWC decision with regard to the Morgan Property is an involved one. The Intervenors have spent a lot of money and effort to intervene in the application process and bring in experts. However, this expertise did not sway the IWWC from approving the project. Despite unprecedented conditions put on the application by the decision, such as the requirement for homeowners to report on their rain gardens in perpetuity, the decision still opens the door to development and erodes the preservation efforts in the Landing Hill area.

Experts tell Preserve Landing Hill (PLH) that appeals are long, drawn out and expensive. They say the chances of having the decision overturned are less than 25%. PLH, formed in an effort to raise public awareness for preserving the historic and beautiful Landing Hill area offers broader support to groups like the Intervenors by supporting the appeal process and working with them during the intervention of the Planning and Zoning application review.

The knowledge gained about the process as a result of the Intervenor's experience points unequivocally to the need to appeal this decision. From the perspective of PLH, the IWWC did not address reasonable and well-support arguments presented by experts.

Town commissions are understandably afraid of developers taking them to court to challenge their decision. It has been, historically, less likely that common town-folk would take this extraordinary step. As a result, the momentum seems to be toward the approval of applications. This is born out statistically - about 9 out of 10 applications are approved. It seems that the diligence required for an approval represents a lower threshold than that which would be required for a denial. Thus, approval represents a path of least resistance.

The file of an appeal would represent resistance to the current path of approval for development applications. It is incumbent on everyone familiar with the story of this issue, the Morgan property and the opportunity to change this to the Morgan Preserve, to do what they can to sway the momentum.

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