Letters June 10, 2009

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

By Planet User

Praise to the Penske Package
This is a note of commendation recognizing the patriotic act of former professional racecar driver and business entrepreneur Roger Penske for his deed of salvation in purchasing the Saturn franchise from the imploded General Motors Corporation.

It is an air of comforting refreshment to witness an American company rising to the rescue as opposed to the all too familiar process of foreign interests sating themselves upon the victuals of ailing American industries; such as the Chinese purchase of the Hummer line. In purchasing the Saturn, the Penske people have promised to maintain all Saturn dealerships nationwide, therefore saving thousands of jobs for thousands of very grateful people.

This is certainly an act of virtue with an American aiding Americans in an era of industrial weakness, which opens a door of vulnerability to corporate foreign invasion.
Well done , Mr Penske.
– Patrik Troiani, Jackson
                     ;                                      
Give me a break
Did you see the front page News&Guide article inspired by our learned planners (planners that you and I are taxed to pay)? The article was comparable to their “neighborhood power point “meetings. It was smooth and creamy but they actually said nothing. They wouldn’t say sh-t if they had a mouth full. And they do.
 So look at this. The Comp Plan is online. If you can’t bare that, go to Staples (I know I can’t bare that either). Do it for the greater good.

Each theme of the comp plan has an indicator which will tell us if things are getting out of hand. That sounds like a good thing. But where is the control? This is all an experiment and they have no control data. So when the water in my well or the moose in my field or the oxygen in my air or the fish in Flat creek get to what point, who says it’s time to shut it down?  Well they do.  The new Comp Plan indicators will tell you to check to see if there is consistency with the FLUP (Future Land Use Plan) and they, the planners, made that up. Yup, the FLUP is the planner’s baby not the valley’s.

This whole thing is a flup. On a lighter note, I signed the petition. I understood it, I was not under duress. There was a time in my life when I was picking up one kid from ski practice and dropping one off at drum lessons, trying to fit the grocery store in before I headed home to fix dinner, do the laundry and help with homework. A petition was an easy way for me to say, “Ya, I get it, but right now I have two kids that have a reports due, and I still need to mow the lawn. I vote, therefore I assume that my elected officials will do the right thing.” I’m wiser now.
– Cindy Hill Stone, South of Town
 
Wildlife: clear priority
During the past two years, after attending multiple meetings on all levels, participating in the “community process”, and now reviewing the draft comprehensive plan and its potential build-out numbers, we are even more convinced of the following:

All development, be it in the county or town, should be governed by the clear and overwhelmingly expressed priority of maintaining wildlife and open space.   This priority must be maintained in all districts, even in the so called “growth nodes.”   While structures may be confined to growth nodes, people are not.

All development, be it residential or commercial should incur and fully mitigate all projected infrastructure costs and impacts to the community:  schools, roads, water, sewer, law enforcement, hospital, social services, and parks.  Given the impact of the recession on this community, one can safely conclude that a “build today and pay for it tomorrow” does not work.
– Frank and Patty Ewing, Jackson

Protection of wildlife corridors
Speaking from my perspective as a scientist and professional who has worked on wildlife issues in this valley for the past 17 years, I was dismayed to learn that despite lip service to the contrary, the draft Comprehensive Plan proposes to leave wildlife preservation out of the equation over large portions of the valley.  It completely negates the value of agricultural lands in South Park, envisions dense growth in critical wildlife areas of Wilson and the West Bank, and fails to protect wildlife corridors and movements.

Private lands in the southern portion of our valley provide critical links to large intact public lands and habitat, and important access to the Snake River; yet this fact does not even merit a “wildlife theme” for South Park, an area encompassing over 2500 acres.  To claim that areas that link animal movements to the South Park feedgrounds, the Snake River Range, and the Gros Ventre Range are unimportant to the future of wildlife in the valley is short-sighted and not grounded in science.  There are important conservation easements already in place that recognize these wildlife and agricultural values, yet County and Town planners have somehow deemed this area part of a sacrificial zone for high density future growth.

Other areas of the valley are just as important.  The question here is not which areas should be sacrificed to the growth machine, but rather how to save the whole to keep it intact and functional.  Plans for Wilson and the West Bank are excessive, and will disrupt wildlife movements into the national park and forest.  Even the outlying areas that the plan identifies as most important to wildlife do not have adequate mechanisms in place for protection, nor the funding to permanently preserve those properties under conservation easements.

The answer lies not in transferring undesirable growth impacts and unacceptable losses of wildlife from one part of the valley or another, or from the county to town, rather through reducing overall growth. My advice to the planners is to take ten steps back, to regain the big picture perspective.

 When we crafted the first Comprehensive Plan, which in my opinion was truly was a community-led process, we reached agreement on what values needed to be protected, which were and still are wildlife and agricultural/Western values.
 If we keep plowing forward through this process with our collective heads down, our children will not applaud our good work, rather we will be remembered only for our tunnel vision.
– Sharon Mader, Jackson
PERMALINK:
Letters June 10, 2009 | Planet JH News Article: Letters To Editor

Leave a Comment