Mayor Lenz - You forgot to include the community!

From: cclpc cclpc
To: Douglas Kwazneski
Subject: Mayor Lenz - You forgot to include the community! Pass it on !!
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 15:07:22 -0700 (PDT)

NEWS RELEASE: Our appeal to Mayor Lenz to reconsider his new Comprehensive Plan Committee.

City-in-the-Country Land Protection Committee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Thomas

The City-in-the-Country Land Protection Committee (CCLPC) asked Saratoga Springs Mayor Michael Lenz today to disband the Comprehensive Plan Committee that he just appointed. The Mayor recently appointed a committee consisting of developers, business interests, and proponents of the Anderson office and condominium project at Exit 14 to create a „new Comprehensive Plan.‰ The Committee is generally charged with developing a new Comprehensive Plan that will guide the development and growth of Saratoga Springs, but no written directions have been given to them. They are expected to prepare their own mission statement.

"This is the wolf in sheep‚s clothing. This is not about protecting the greenbelt, it is about putting more buildings on it. Let‚s be honest, is there anyone out there complaining that the protections of rural zoning don‚t go far enough? Quite the opposite, many in the development community despise the notion of a greenbelt‰ said John Thomas, one of the founding members of CCLPC.

Thomas also said: „Most significantly, if the Mayor sincerely wanted to strengthen the greenbelt, he would have put together a committee devoted to that issue. Instead, he stacked the deck in favor of the developers."

„The only thing 'comprehensive' about the Mayor's Committee is that it includes every development interest." „Noticeably missing is any of one of the hundreds of people that had to convince Mayor Lenz not to allow offices and condo‚s at Exit 14‰, Thomas stated.

"CCLPC wants the public to be aware of the danger in Mayor Lenz's actions," he said. "Opening up the Comprehensive Plan again bodes poorly for the future of Saratoga Springs as a 'City in the Country' since the push to change the plan is not community-driven but development-driven. Especially in an election year, we need to know who the Mayor is representing. The Mayor should abolish the committee."
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CCLPC: a community-based organization dedicated to preserving the City-in-the-Country.