4. SR 08-13-2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 1 of 1 Mehelich, Catherine From: sue seeger [pseudoszu@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 9:48 AM To: sklinzing; Nick Zerwas; jgumphrey; Ifarber; pmotin Subject: redevelopment task force meeting follow-up Dear Mayor Klinzing and Council Members, I wrote you last week expressing my concerns about the downtown redevelopment along with a list of questions i planned to ask at the meeting. many of them were addressed in the presentation, others were asked by other residents. i did let them know i had so far been overlooked as far as receiving any information, and asked what steps they planned to take from this point forward to ensure public participation in the project. to paraphrase, the response was along the lines of, "Well, you're here, and we're having this open house, so..." Pointtaken--it will be up to the citizenry to insert themselves pro actively into this process. The day before the meeting me and a couple of neighbors distributed flyer's around the study area, assuming there were plenty of others that did not know about the redevelopment plans. of the people who came to the meetings, a number said they had received no information to date (other than our flyer)--that's of those motivated enough to show up for a meeting. the tone at the second meeting was a bit more conciliatory. several times it was acknowledged that the focus group's data base needs work etc., and it was mentioned that people are welcome to attend task force meetings. also phrasing was wisely changed from continually referring to the plan as "an ideal plan" to "this is an idealistic plan." subtle, but contextually important. the hot button of eminent domain seemed to be, for the most part defused-- although roadway changes accompanying the inevitable HWY 10 revamp still leave some residents in the cross hairs. people continue to be mistrustful. there was a lot of blow-back because of the w;ay this was approached. the comment that the task force had no other resident appointees because it couldn't find anyone drew a chorus of boo's. the task force members had their hands full, but made themselves available for a lengthy question and answer period after the presentation and even stayed after that to talk to residents face to face. the residents from the neighborhood south ofhwy 10 vehemently oppose the river-side trail and park components because of security concerns, property infringement, and opposition to drawing more traffic into what is a very well maintained, quiet neighborhood this contingent is especially organized and will continue to fight the trail's inclusion in the final plan. we, as residents, have now galvanized around the redevelopment issue and will continue to monitor it and network among ourselves. many of us do appreciate the need for a plan, and parts of it do look exciting and actually vital. i hope the city council and task force recognize the publics role in the formulation of a final plan is important and that is respected from this point forward, not just given lip service. it would have been nice if th is could have evolved from a guided bottom -up process that drew in residents ;who care deeply about tkir town, getting them exciting about potentialities for the future and feeling included, then from that springboard narrowing to the focus group phase, but we're here now and all want a prosperous, healthy hometa \ Vl1. hopefully the city will learn from this first mis-step and capitalize on the larger pool of possible solutions provided by more participants in the process. thanks for your time. sincerelv o , sue seeger ReDdy fJr the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV. 7/25n007