“Let’s worry LESS about protecting the individual property owner in their quest to maximize their land values, and let’s worry MORE about balancing the needs of our community.”
Folks,
The Republican members running for P&Z are typically pro-development, hiding within the language of “protecting property rights of owners”. I will follow up more later but REPUBLICAN FRED RICH (previously on P&Z, but not re-elected last election; his wife is also running for re-election as Woodstock treasurer unapposed) & Republican Dexter Young (currently on P&Z running for re-election; his son excellent engineer also a principal of CME Engineers, a local company working with many developers) voted to approved the Pulpit Rock Development, which included nine (9) amendments by the P&Z board!?!? Pulpit Rock Road was a flagrant example of the “good old boy” network trying to push a completely unacceptable development through PZC when development applications were obviously flawed. It was not so much a question of needing new P&Z rules as it was a question of FOLLOWING THE EXISTING RULES!!
Some examples of past Republican Control of PZC are:
(1) incomplete developer plans being accepted for review,
(2) accepting LATE applications,
(3) NEVER forcing the developers to completely address or answer citizen’s comments and/or outside engineering comments,
(4) utilizing/hiring “weak” consultant engineers to review developer plans for P&Z – allowing questionable development to occur,
(5) allowing public safety concerns with traffic to NOT BE ADDRESSED, and
(6) attempting to approve incomplete and flawed plans by “offering amendments” rather than having the developer/engineers rework/re-submit their complete plans and suggesting that these issues could be managed sufficiently well through the Woodstock inspection system.
All of these issues can and should be addressed by P&Z in the review of developers plans … and they can force the developer to spend additional FUNDS and P&Z can hire outside experts. Since the developer is charged for whatever outside specialists PZC needs to hire in reviewing the plans, why wouldn’t Woodstock want to hire the VERY BEST??
Trust me, Connecticut does not lack in pro-business lobbies nor does the building industry lack representation in impacting the rules and regulations governing the building process. So let’s worry LESS about protecting the individual property owner in their quest to maximize their land values, and let’s worry MORE about balancing the needs of our community. Woodstock cannot stop development through the PZC process, but Woodstock can and should raise the bar regarding the regulations which developers must meet to “slap in houses”. The Town of Woodstock, up until the least election, was seen as an easy target for developers with a pattern of “low cost, easy and fast to get through the approval process”. This has changed somewhat since the new PZC members were voted in last election.
We need to elect smart non-construction, non-development affiliated individuals to the PZC board to help us manage growth (though demographically/economically- most of the huge growth will probably not return for many, many years. How does one spell Woodstock Building Associates in Chinese anyway?)
The other big issue in managing development/growth in Woodstock is protection of wetlands through the Inland Wetlands Commission whose members are unfortunately appointed (and re-appointed) by the Woodstock Selectmen. As I understand it, Republican operatives, Charlie Snow and Dan Very, continue to lead that organization and, if the Pulpit Rock Road fiasco serves as an example, developers can laugh their way through the approval process since rarely, if ever, have wetland permits ever been denied to developers and everyone living in Woodstock KNOWS a significant amount of land within the town is considered “wet” … that is, except the ‘leaders’ of IWWA. But don’t bother hiring an engineer to explain a different prospective to them. They won’t even bother to address the comments. Why would they? One of these individuals, for the record, claimed to recognize where glaciers retreated during the “ice age”. With that amount of wisdom suppose no one should be surprised that they don’t really bother listening to others’ opinions.
Do I still sound bitter? YES SIR! It feels like watching a criminal walk around the community after seeing them rob MY house … but no one wants to enforce the rules.
Thankfully, the entire story isn’t over yet, and the best is yet to come!
I hope you’re right, Ken. My “gut” tells me you are based on your actions on Pulpit Rock Road. This is an area that we all should focus on because it’s the root of ALL of our problems in Woodstock.
Hey Joe,
What did you think of the front page article in the Bulletin today projecting a growth rate for the Town in excess of 53% over the next 23 years? I’ll bet that just creates all sorts of heartburn for you and the rest of your crowd that would stand in the way of inevitable growth for not only Woodstock but the entire county!! In reading the articles about Sterling, Scotland, Eastford and Woodstock, I was struck by how the other towns were mostly embracing the opportunities that growth would bring versus this Town’s approach which seems to be to do stop any progress by any means necesssary including bullying and personal attacks—all in an effort to prevent the inevitable. At least our neighbors have some foresight and realize that it is 2007 and not 1907 in the Land That Time Forgot. I particularly enjoyed the quote from the man from Scotland, “We’ve got open space, people moving in , but no banks, And you don’t want to run out of gas here, since the nearest station is ten miles away”. Well, at least we have Scotland beat in the bank department…..but you were probably against that too, right Joe??
Oh, and here’s a question for Margie and the BOF…..WHY MUST WE WAIT UNTIL JANUARY TO VOTE AGAIN ON THE SALT SHED?? With winter on the way, it would seem to me that a sense of urgency is needed around Town Hall!!
Of course, that same article in the Bulletin mentioned Eastford has a number of approved subdivisions but nothing happening with them. Why? Because of the 31.5 mill rate. Eastford has been and will be a a tough sell because of the high property taxes.
I don’t entirely agree with the entire PZC being made up of non-construction. People in the trade sometimes can offer a perspective that being not in the trade would never think of. Remember, not all builders rape the land and slap in tons of houses. There are “green” builders out there.
I’m betting dimes to dollars if Alan Walker is elected First Selectman, you will never see him sitting at the table with the Board of Education or the Planning and Zoning Commission. The Democrats really blew a major opportunity to unify our town boards when they got Wholean elected, although that seemed to be a direct result of support from Woodstock Academy. All the Dems can do now is get the best candidates elected to Board of Finance and Board of Education and hope that Walker wins and turns out to be more conciliatory than Wholean. He certainly talked a good game in the Villager this week. She’s been a disaster for her own party.
If Margie spent the time in her own office that she now spends at Board of Education meetings, essentially just watching and contributing little value to the discussions, she would have had enough time to put together an effective plan of action to deal with the salt shed, before the DEP felt is was necessary to go public with their enforcement. (It’s a wonder that the DEP has not come down by now on Woodstock Academy’s sewer problem and also that the state is not expressing greater concern with the lack of real remediation while at the same time they devote time, energy and money towards an expansion program for their athletic facilities). With the laid back posture of the state to date, Margie blew an opportunity to be proactive with this salt shed problem.
“Embracing the opportunities for growth”? I think we all could embrace controlled light industrial/commercial development in certain areas of town…rather than more subdivisions! Yes, Woodstock needs more gas stations, auto dealers, retail stores…and why not a Dunkin Dounuts up by the Academy green…the old Post Office? “Stranded” doesn’t want to feel like time passed by without bringing Woodstock into the 21st century. Common Joe- get with the program!
Randy
Let me clarify- I meant individuals with no vested construction related interests in Woodstock. There are many individuals with real estate, construction management, design engineering or trades experience that work “outside” the area- but live locally. We really do not want a “fox guarding the hen house”- even one who claims to be a vegitarian- unless no other options are available to us.
Yeah, Ken, people like “Stranded” (there are plenty like him moving into town) think that the convenience of having everything at their finger tips is “progress” and that we should all embrace it as inevitable. More this, more that, more traffic, expanding school system (don’t forget the associated problems like special needs students and the colossal price tags they bring) higher taxes and expanding municipal aggravations add up to something that I don’t call progress. In fact, it adds up to a deterioration in the quality of life that we have in this area. You’d think that dopes like him would look around and see that we still have a chance to hold on to some of what we have instead of moving along like sheep as much of Connecticut has. Why in hell did Stranded move here in the first place? There are plenty of towns like Enfield where he can bask in the mess he call progress.
Mr. Klusek, why are CPS stalwarts Ralston and now Valentine trying to prevent tighter land development regulations? It doesn’t seem consistent with your objectives?
Joe K.,
Stranded has one thing right in that growth is inevitable and there is no legal way to stop it totally and permanently. You can shake your fist up at the heavens about how this is going to be expensive and cause more traffic, cause changes to the town and why didn’t those people move somewhere else but it won’t do any good.
So there are several legal avenues that are open to the town to shape that growth and control how that growth looks and feels to the town. The clock is ticking on this. If we don’t get the proper zoning in soon we are going to wake up with a Walmart somewhere in town. The ability of the P&Z board to conduct business is crucial at this stage.
Thanks.
Dean, That’s a good question. I haven’t spoken to Mr. Ralston for some time, but I intend to find out. I am not a fan of Ms Valentine, but I will talk to Ralston concerning their recent uprising on P&Z issues.
Dean, I have just spoken with Mr. Ralston and what he says makes perfect sense to me regarding proposed changes to our zoning regs ala Mean Joe Breen. I haven’t read what he sponsors yet but I’m inclined to believe that if he’s behind these new regs then Woodstock as you now know it is about to don a new costume. The new costume’s print will feature lots of new development in the form of strip malls, widening roads and traffic lights. There will be no more home businesses (After all, businesses should be located in their “proper areas” like strip malls and industrial parks.) You see, Mr. Dean, Joe Breen’s interests are his own-period. He works for a large real estate development firm; he sees oportunity, here, for big changes with only us shit kickers in his way.
I may not have this perfectly right yet, but my instincts tell me that this is what’s afoot. I’m much more inclined to believe Mr. Ralston because I know where his heart is.
Mr. Klusek,
You may find this hard to believe after the exchange that you and I had last week, but I actually don’t disagree with you as much as you might think. I moved here because this is simply a beautiful town to live in. I would not like to see the pastoral farmlands and quaint country views disturbed by either subdivisions or strip malls. I also think that there’s some truth to what Bowman says. People will want to continue to move here because we do have a lower mill rate than many surrounding towns, good schools, and a beautiful town in general. We can’t stop some builders from making a living (though we don’t want to throw open the doors and let them run wild through the pastures either). It seems that having a good solid P&Z board with members who are not ignorant to the building profession (while simultaneously not in a position of profiting from development) would be a prudent step. Change is probably inevitable so it seems necessary to have P&Z members who can guard and control the nature of any future “progress”.
I would prefer to have to travel one or two towns over to purchase things. Leave the Wal-Mart in Putnam. That’s fine with me.
As for your comment regarding kids that might move into this town and cost the town money, particularly special ed. kids…It does cost money to educate children. It generally costs more to educate children with special needs. There’s no getting around that. It is a fact of education. The point of my exchange with you last week was to say that since we have a certain amount of children living here currently, they ALL (K-12) require and deserve a quality education.
I’m not sure that blocking any and all future subdivisions would help you save the town money for education spending though. Have you checked realtor.com lately to see how many homes are currently for sale in Woodstock? The inventory is pretty large. If every one of those homes are bought by a family with one or more children, the education budget will be going up. That’s aside from any housing developments presently under construction and/or planned for future construction.
Instead of engaging in idle speculation about what they may or may not say why don’t we just get a copy and look? I’m sure John could get one if he asked.
Thanks.
Ken,
Is it too much to ask to buy a gallon of milk without driving ten miles?? Or a gallon of gas for that matter? What sort of commercial development would you support? No infrastructure equals no commercial development? No commercial development equals a lower tax base and more reliance on property taxes. And since we’re smarter than everyone else in CT and have a “Budget Process For Dummies” aka Prop 46 means that we will be stuck in this morass for the foreseeable future. And no, I would not support a Dunkin Donuts on Woodstock Hill….now, a Starbucks….that would be a different story (just kidding).
Wether you people want to see it or not, LOW taxes means MORE people, and not exactly the ones you want. (Although, they might be like that obviuosly super intelligent guy, Mr. “Boom Boom” Ralston. )
The nerve of the republicans standing up for the rights of property owners. Lets make sure we vote for democrats to see that personal property rights are to be put back into government hands. we all know that individuals can not make these decisions wisely. lerts transfer all property and assets to the democrats, they will distribute them fairly