[RP TownTalk] (no subject)

[Kate Kelly]

Here's a copy of an email I sent this morning to the mayor and council. --KK

Good morning.
Before the brickbats, let me say thanks to the Riverdale Park mayor and
council for staying up late so many nights. I know it's a difficult job
that none of you was hoping to do.

As you go forward with the Cafritz negotiations, please remember that most
people in Riverdale Park--certainly those who are closest to the site--are
not ambivalent in any way or hoping to settle for the best of a bad
situation. We oppose the development. You know that. You've heard us say
it, and you've heard our neighbors say it.

And you have heard it from most people in the neighboring towns. Stuart
Eisenberg from Hyattsville said it last night and others have said it from
the beginning: This is building with regional consequences. The developers'
and planners' renderings all stop at the boundaries, but the impact does
not.

Let me recapitulate: There is no dishonor in demanding that the Cafritz
group prove the value in its plan in exchange for your assent to the zoning
change. To name a single point, it's still going to be a shopping center on
Route 1, even with a wall and a buffer. The truck traffic that will begin
with construction and continue for a decade as the project is completed
will go on forever with deliveries. It will be a regional fact of life,
just like the drive-through bank at East-West Highway. That's something
even proponents are against.

How is it wrong, then, to demand that the developer prove it will work
BEFORE saying yes?

  - It's too much for the site.
   - It's derivative, not innovative.
  - It's bad for the environment.
  - It's bad for local roads, schools, and services.
  - It's benefit will not offset its cost.

So far, we've not heard a straight answer, so we are asking again: What is
in this for us? Our neighborhoods, our neighbors, our towns, our children,
our planet?

Thanks, as usual, for your time.
Kate and Joe Kelly
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