BRATTLEBORO — While I am still neutral on the issue of whether the BASIC skatepark should be built in Crowell Park, I am strongly in favor of proper and legal community processes in deciding this, and I would like to observe some facts.
I attended the Development Review Board (DRB) meeting of June 20, 2011, where the skatepark siting was first considered.
After Zoning Administrator Brian Bannon testified that he thought this was a “minor” change to an existing facility, the board took a vote and said they agreed with his assessment.
I have two problems with this.
One is that pouring tons of concrete into a 10,000-square-foot area, moving an entire playground to do it, putting majestic old-growth trees at risk, and intentionally creating a “regional” recreation attraction that will change traffic and parking patterns in the neighborhood surely constitutes a “major” change in an existing facility, so I think in this case that Brian Bannon and the DRB were wrong to say it was “minor.”
And what would have happened if they decided it was a “major” change?
The park creators would have had to apply for a zoning variance if they wanted to use this site. A whole other procedure of public hearings and other steps would have been necessary, and maybe we would have gotten the full community discernment that such a major change deserves.
Also, only those property owners immediately abutting the park - including myself - were notified (legally warned) of this hearing.
Property owners farther away (even next door) were not notified, despite the fact that sight lines and park noise will affect some of them. And the changes in parking, traffic, crowds, and other aspects will surely affect the character of the larger neighborhood as well.
Furthermore, I believe that the relocation of the existing playground to build the skatepark should have been separately publicly warned in the media by the DRB because the playground facilities and equipment cater to a different clientele and draws residents from a much wider neighborhood area for its use. Moving it affects many more than just those who live near the park.
Finally, I believe that the skatepark's possible effects on the beautiful and majestic trees of Crowell Park merits the town hiring an independent consultant arborist, one who is neutral on this project, to tell us if the trees will suffer or die because of the impending concrete “blanket” at their feet, so to speak. What does the town's Tree Advisory Board have to say about this?
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Public warnings, zoning changes, and proper minute-taking at meetings rightly have a very prominent place in Vermont law because we are a democracy, prizing transparency in government.
Just to give an example, the average resident reading the DRB minutes of June 20, 2011 would not have had any reasonable chance to question or challenge the board's vote on the skatepark plans as a minor-vs.-major change because there were no minutes taken documenting the vote that I witnessed on the matter. I do think that the omission in the minutes was probably inadvertent.
However, I do think that the town is taking a supportive role in finessing the skatepark initiative ... what was first presented as a separate group putting the project together is now presented as a town group and as having been so from the beginning.
And how is it that before any of these things took place, before any legal or procedural vetting whatsoever, the skatepark folks were given a tour of Crowell Park, had it (in effect) offered to them, and then were allowed to put up their BASIC “thermometer” fundraising sign on the park premises? The presence of this sign precedes the DRB rulings by months. I remember being very surprised by its appearance, because I had heard nothing of the Crowell Park site possibility before it appeared.
Though I remain neutral on the skatepark being at this site, I'm writing now as an elected town representative. I represent all these neighbors of Crowell Park at Town Meeting. They are all sophisticated and considerate enough not to question my right to form my own opinions on this project.
Yet I feel I must stand up for their rights. I think they had a right to duly and properly vet the placing of the skatepark in Crowell Park.
What I prize the most, you see, is democracy and transparency in our local government. I will continue to champion this principle, and I will celebrate the outcome, whatever it is, only if it has been decided by due process of law, local government hearings, and town-sponsored citizen discussions.
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There is one more chance, in practical terms, for all of us to discuss these matters.
The Selectboard has awarded a contract for the final design of the skatepark. It should have been BASIC that did so, but never mind splitting that hair right now. When that final design has been received by the Selectboard, they will put it on one of their meeting agendas for a vote.
This is when those most concerned about these matters should show up at the Selectboard meeting and speak out.
Can it affect the outcome? I'm not sure. But it would show the Selectboard material evidence of the degree to which this citizen review process has been cut short.
However, I would like to ask the Selectboard, here in public, to revisit the DRB's June 20, 2011 decisions, plus the fact that the vote on the project as a “minor” change was not reflected in the minutes of that meeting. This, I believe, deprived the public of their rightful opportunity to contest that finding.
I think there are very serious provisions of Vermont law that cover this sort of thing, and the Selectboard would be well advised, during their own investigations, to try very hard to understand the underlying reasons why there is so much community discomfiture with this plan.