June 3
A suspicious Mayor noted the concurrent meeting regarding the new Owens development plan at the YMCA the same time as the Tuesday BOA...was the meeting scheduled purposefully to prevent attendance by the Mayor?(maybe, who knows). In any event, alderman Finn opted to attend the first part of the meeting and joined the BOA in progress. When she arrived, the Mayor asked Tanya for an update.
"Packed house with lots of angry people" said Ms Finn, referring to opponents of the development plan. The idea is construction of a development aimed at the 55+ crowd, enabling them (I guess I should include me) to age "gracefully". Apparently that means a fairly high density of homes/units that works out to between 7,000 to 8,000 square feet per unit, according to Alderman Stevenson (point of reference, WL has minimum of 15,000 square feet). Supposedly WLIC Prez Rick Neece as well as Joe Ennett and others were in attendance. Concerns include of course runoff/ erosion into our lake and all the other problems a high density development might have.
Some discussion among the aldermen ensued, villifying Jim Owens being an easy target. Alderman Steve Clark mentioned this wasn't the first rodeo with Owens, and acknowledged me in the audience as participating in the effort to stymie Owens in the early 2000's. I took the opportunity to agree with Steve but also added we are quick to condemn Owens but we have our own business to take care of here in WL. It wasn't all that long ago when a similar effort regarding "elderhousing" here at WL was spearheaded by former Alderman Hoy and others. Mayor Botbyl's position on our current 15,000 sq ft requirement is unknown...a great opportunity for him to make a policy statement now and head off any similar discussions here at WL.
Did you attend the Y meeting? Would be great to hear your Comments.
2 comments:
Where is the development in relation to Weatherby Lake?
Go to Thursday's May 22 post, see the 3rd comment.
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