Protect Existing Neighborhoods

- Private group -
Thu, 12/12/2013 - 2:15pm
I appreciate all that the town (and town officials) are doing to respect the place we live and work and to remember why people come here, come back here and stay here. Please forward my letter to all members of the Planning Board, Bill Kelly and Pat Finnegan.

I felt after the November 20th Planning Board meeting on Foxhill that a few inaccuracies in information presented by Leslie Tranchell (she said Simon for some reason), should be clarified. Without getting into a he said, she said, let’s just leave it that there was more than one offer to purchase the property during the time it was listed for sale for Ellen Simmons and numerous people viewed it for residential use. Further, I am convinced that at the final selling price of $2,700,000 there would have been other buyers for the property with the purpose of a residential use. It is more common than not in the last 5 year real estate market for properties at this level to be on the market for multiple years without offers.

Foxhill was getting activity and had offers which is more than some owners can say for their homes. The language of the proposed special exception is unlike any other described use in the existing ordinance. It’s contrary to the way the existing ordinance is written. Nowhere does the ordinance go into such detail about why someone needs a particular use. A use is described for what the use is, and that suffices.

Spot zoning is not an appropriate way to deal with town planning especially when it’s arbitrarily used for the specific benefit of investors and not for the common good of the community. For those who live here, and those yet to discover Camden' s overwhelming beauty.

I encourage the Planning Board to turn down the proposed ordinance change for Foxhill or any other property and to do as the Zoning Ordinance states (in the first paragraph of Article II, Purpose) "protect existing neighborhoods.”

Respectfully,
Scott Horty