If only 24 show up at a meeting you held to show affected citizens why they should be against the proposed Four Farms development what would you think?
Are the rest of the nearby residents sufficiently educated, have made up their mind, one way or the other, and need no help deciding. It must be frustrating to go to the trouble of organizing opposition and only a handful arrives to hear you. Suffolk Citizens For Responsible Growth know the monster development will take place if the Planning Commission says yes next time and Council does the same. You know both bodies are feeling tremendous pressure like they did when north Suffolk exploded. So what is next on your agenda, keep trying to warn your neighbors or close up shop knowing you gave it a shot? The idea of a new city springing from the earth is exciting. You can’t figure people, letting them know you are organized opposition might even cause them to be for it. Those who took the trouble to educate should be proud of their effort. It is not the end of it, developers will not go away, traffic congestion is expected and acceptable . Will it be good for our downtown or compete with it?. Photo from SNH.
3 comments:
Yes, it will compete with downtown - the developers said so in a meeting with my husband and me - initiated by our lawyer, as the developers have not reached out to the surrounding neighborhoods that will be most impacted. We were told that the residents of Four Farms would never have to leave their development for shopping - but that's not what they told the Downtown Business Owners. The connector road to Route 58 bypass will short-circuit Downtown completely.
No, we won't give up. Discussions with close to 500 of our neighbors show overwhelming opposition - these are the voters, tax payers, residents who must use the roads to get to work, attend school. Traffic is not just an inconvenience - it means that public safely vehicles - fire, ambulance, police - response times are degraded. East Washington, Hosier and White Marsh all lack manuever room for emergency vehicles - a breakdown on any of these roads has been known to tie up traffic.
Growth is inevitable and can be great for the community - this is just the wrong time, wrong place, and wrong size.
As predicted Four Farms is back within a month with what they say is a better offer. "No homes built until construction of connector road started. Not completed,started. The opposition has not blinked and it still is in the hands of the planners and Council. Any bets?
The planning Commission took the pressure off the Council by once again saying "No" to FourFarms using traffic congestion as the reason. But they will be back. It is too big a project and too much money invested for them to just walk away. But is there another real reason Downtowners duck such growth so close to them? Like seeing competition looming on the south side? We will see.
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