MILLBROOK — The Comprehensive Plan Review Committee held a workshop meeting on Monday evening, June 28, at 6 p.m. for the town of Washington in the Millbrook Village Hall. Despite the fact that the public meeting was unannounced and only posted on the town website on Friday, about 20 residents showed up to see what was on the agenda. Under questioning about advance notice, the committee agreed that all dates of meetings would be posted on the website, placed in newspapers, and that a schedule of upcoming meetings through September would be prepared.
The committee members present, but not the residents who came, received a 14-page transcription of all of the comments made at the Saturday morning, May 22, public workshop discussing community goals and action steps prepared by Riverstreet, the town’s planning consultant.
Tom Beaumont, co-chairman of the CPRC, urged the committee members to take them home and review them, as well as the comments published on the town’s website.
Committee member Dan Strayer asked, “Where is this going? Is this what we want?�
Don Hanson, co-chairman, said he was upset that the web comments had disappeared from the town website, and later agreed to place the original draft 14-page document on the website for all to read.
The committee was peppered with questions from the public throughout the meeting about the results of the survey, the vision statement itself, the transcribing of the comments and the scheduling of meetings.
Cmmittee member, Daniel Weller said that he felt assaulted by the line of questioning, and then left the room. Before doing so, he spoke about his issues.
“I’m not serving on this committee to represent the 17 percent of people who responded to this survey,� he said. “I’m here to represent all of the people in the town of Washington.�
The validity of original survey results was debated again. One resident said “There is no substitution for one person one vote. We have the result. Why are we confused? All you need to know is what the residents want.�
Hanson admitted that town of Washington residents had “three chances to voice their opinion.� Barbara Ohrbach asked, “Do you try to imagine what they think?� Beaumont responded, “We found out now that we can’t know.�
Tony Sloan respectfully submitted that discussion return to the vision statement, and observed that no one wants affordable housing, suggesting that the committee had an agenda of its own. Hanson firmly stated, “We have no agenda, Tony.�
Julia Widdowson, founder of Millbrook Matters, asked, “When is the public meeting on the visioning statement?� and reminded the group that weekenders are an important constituency.
Later, on the topic of affordable housing, John Askildson took the floor and explained his understanding of the necessity of addressing the affordable housing and the risks of legal challenge.
The committee agreed to provide more information and advance notice. Right now there is no date for the next meeting.
Photo by Riley Klein
