Letter to the First Selectman

The following letter to First Selectman Mark Walter was submitted to our blog site:

Dear Mark, Thank you for attending the P&Z public hearing last night. There were many important issues presented and discussed.

I am passionate about this issue, but not because it is my backyard, although that certainly supplies a lot of energy. Rather, there is a curious dynamic at play in town that is not constructive for people that live here and I feel strongly that we as a town need to improve this situation.

There is a subtle yet powerful inertia serving the perception of economic development in the form of residential housing that pushes applications like Morgan Estates forward despite a lack of diligence and in spite of the harm that this type of development does to the town in the long run. It is commonly understood that residential development is an economic drain on the town. Yet this knowledge is not being served in the least. Rather, there is an old perception that progress includes the construction of new houses and the best we can do is to stay out of the way.

This is old thinking. It hurts the town and makes it a more and more challenging place to live as we move into a future that requires a resilient community economy. This resiliency consists of businesses that serve the everyday needs of people that live here. This is true economic development, and an imperative of the changing times.

I urge you to not let the temporary downturn in energy prices and upturn in the stock market lull you to thinking that our national or local economy will ever be again like it was. It will not – we are at peak oil and peak natural resource in all areas – ores, metals, wood, clean air, clean water – the list goes on and on and includes debt and the ratio of ever rising GDP to a fixed (and declining) resource base. The nature of these exponential growth curves is that we will be overwhelmed with sweeping changes in a very short time. This is frankly a question of mathematical certainty, not opinion. (see chrismartenson.com for a cogent information supporting this view).

You can also read much more of the views of a small but growing group called Preserve Landing Hill at their blog site: http://preserve-landinghill.blogspot.com/

The unfortunate dynamic in our town includes the use of our tax dollars, public money, to support a system of review that is geared toward approving applications rather than holding them to a firm interpretation of our regulations. You heard examples of this last night when we parsed the meaning, or lack thereof, in NL Jacobsen’s engineering consulting letter. You heard it when Town Attorney Eric Knapp inappropriately challenged me, a taxpayer that pays his bills, with requests for justification of points I had made in my presentation. You also heard a clear argument that town dollars are being spent to review an incomplete application.

I am writing to express my concern as a citizen and tax payer over expenditures of public money in this regard; paying an attorney that is not representing the best interest of town folk, paying an engineering consultant that is not protecting the town and conducting resource intense public hearings on incomplete subdivision applications.

Lastly, now is the time, since they did close the public hearing, to turn away from being oppositional and to create an outcome that serves the town better – a preserve in the place of 7 four bedroom homes. The Land Trust and the developer are talking. All that is needed is to now talk realistically about creating this reality. It’s that easy. Please support the positive alternative, win/win possibility that a preserve offers to all involved!