A Glass Half Full?
Many of you don't read the Planning Commission packet, because you are normal people with jobs, families...you know, lives.
As the Commission is readying for its public hearing tomorrow, the city has posted a bundle of nearly 70 letters from the public. A couple are in support of the new code and then there are a series of form letters in opposition.
Some of the form letters are changed slightly. But most, even from the leaders of WLHS, are exactly the same. They lay out a few alternative facts but conclude with an odd sentence: "Notices buried in the Harbor Light or taped to a grocery store wall are not sufficient public outreach. Every property owner deserves clear notice and a fair chance to weigh in."
Oh, come on! Let's set aside that this is the same kind of notice people in communities across the country receive. Notices are also posted online and on social media. Heck, you can sign up to have the committee packets delivered to you via email. If at this point you haven't been involved in the zoning code discussion---that's on you. It is the EXACT same complaint a year ago despite herculean efforts at public involvement.
Let's face it. If you are visiting the WLHS website to send a form letter to the city to complain that you had no idea what was happening because you didn't see the public notices hanging at the grocery store...I am not sure I am buying what you are selling.
Folks-no one is entitled to a gold engraved personal invitation and city dispatched chauffer to get you to a public meeting. If you know enough to send a form letter online, you know enough to sign up for notices.
Further, you can't have it both ways. You can't both demand that more people get involved, but also make every single meeting miserable for anyone who shows up.
Councilman Buckner said in the Harbor Light today that 1,700 hours of public work has been put in by volunteers to get the code to this point. That is a lot. Anyone was welcome to join in those hours of discussion.
What is perhaps more telling than the effort to flood the commission with identical form letters is the make up of the people who sent them.
By my rough count of the 67 form letters sent in opposition to the new code:
22 were voters in Harbor Springs (30%)
12 were homeowners in Harbor Springs (but not voters) (20%)
33 were neither voters or homeowners in Harbor Springs (50%)
You can check the letters and my math out at the link below. Like everything in this process, the letters are all public: