Letter: Vote DeMayo-Wall for Planning Board
 |
To the Editor:
The only way that you can live in Williamstown and say "let's wait for the new town plan to solve our housing problem" with a straight face is if you're new to town or you have been asleep. We know that Williamstown will not follow housing recommendations in a master plan because we have a near-perfect record of not doing so.
Here's the evidence we do have: Williamstown's 2002 plan outlined seven strategies the town should use to create a target of 200 new housing units that people at or under the area median income could afford. We then spent the next 20 years ignoring all but one of the recommendations, and disparaging those who sought to bring them about. The MP recommendation that a portion of the Lowry property, in the town center, be used for housing was shot down. The MP recommendation that the Water/Spring Street area be used for housing was nixed when our own Select Board voted not to accept a proposal to build affordable housing on Water Street (Jane Patton was the only vote in favor). When the
Planning Board drafted bylaws to encourage housing density in the town center, another MP recommendation, it was accused of over-depending on the residents of Cole Avenue to accommodate housing; when it recommended bylaws to encourage housing out of the town center, it has been accused of supporting sprawl and runaway development.
In housing terms, we are worse off in 2022 than we were in 2002. With evidence that we systematically reject housing recommendations in the reigning Master Plan, how can anyone say with a straight face that opportunities to create new housing should wait for the completion of a new Master Plan? It's code for no, without the honesty, at least, of just saying no.
Vote for Carin DeMayo-Wall for Planning Board. She's smart, energetic, and knowledgeable. And not naive.
Cheryl Shanks
Williamstown, Mass.
Tags: election 2022,
