Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

----- Original Message -----
From: Lisa Ross
To: lstratton@dispatch.com ; tom@biahomebuilders.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 1:23 PM
Subject: Parade of Homes article


Mr. Stratton,

Thank you for creating the article on the Parade of Homes in Pickerington in the Sunday Dispatch, December 1, 2002. http://libpub.dispatch.com/cgi-bin/documentv1?DBLIST=cd02&DOCNUM=53179&TERMV=5415:6:5423:5:10567:6:10575:5:25878:6:25886:5:
I am passing a copy of this communication to Mr. Hart from the BIA and posting it on the Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance web site discussion area, http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/org/pata , click 'discussion area'' to your left on the screen. Please continue your interest and reporting on this and other growth issues in our community.

To the BIA:

If the BIA wants to litigate the two homes per acre initiative that overwhelmingly passed in the City of Pickerington, I suggest that you first go into your own neighborhoods where you live, places like Powell, Dublin, New Albany, Orange Township,and litigate the restrictive zoning regulations that limit homes to large lot sizes, mandate expensive construction techniques etc, etc, I'm sure these may not pass muster with a broad interpretation of the fair housing act either. I'm sure you would have your neighbor's support in changing these restrictions!

Then... after you finish in your own neighborhoods and communities, increasing the possibilities of increasing your profits right at home, come on to Pickerington to litigate our law. We will welcome you with open arms as you tell us that it is OK to overrun our schools, roads and services with uncontrolled, explosive residential growth, after all it is OK where you live now too.

Apparently the BIA and those it represents do not understand that they are fighting the will of the community, their customer base, and destroying our school system, the very centerpiece of their advertising and marketing bread and butter that creates their success.

Magically, take all the beautiful homes and neighborhoods here, and deposit them in the City of Columbus School District, I think you will figure out that it is not the homes we purchase to live in alone, it is the community and what the people who live here bring to it. The practice of marketing the quality of life that we bring here, telling us that we should have no say in how much we can afford to support for your success must stop. Whether we are black, white, Asian, .....rich, poor, .......have lived here for generations or have just moved in last year , we deserve an EQUAL say in how our community should develop. Our schools are now facing an emergency financial situation, to demand less would be criminal in my view. The recent citizen action on the ballot and in the courts in our community became necessary because our elected officials have sided with developers in a pattern that has occurred for many years and the community is no longer willing to tolerate the costs and impact of these actions. These actions will continue until the people who represent the community change or are removed from office.

BIA page two

I can honestly tell you, if the BIA chooses to litigate, I believe you ain't seen nothing yet. We can paper this town with newsletters, signs and petitions until the destruction of our community and way of life stops. It is our obligation to our children, to stop the irresponsibility of the adults in charge, for letting this continue to happen year after year. Our children are paying the price for this with the continued degradation of our schools as the community is unwilling or unable to continue to pay for this runaway growth.

I suggest that the BIA poll its members who do business here and ask them if they are willing to risk their reputations by action on your threat of litigation on their behalf on this two homes per acre issue. This action would be the equivalent of pouring gas on fire, inflaming the current community sentiment which does not favor runaway growth. And furthermore, this is not going to go away in six months if you play the oft used ''waiting game'' to let us cool down. Many of us have been following this situation for years, we may not have deep pockets for attorneys like your industry (thanks to our rising taxes) but we will ultimately win because we are your customers, and we create your market...... remember, the customer is always right. I believe reputation is where the heart of your business is, continue to destroy our schools and it is fair game in my view.

Sincerely,
Lisa Ross

Great letter...

That was a dynamite letter!

Did that get sent out to the Dispatch, Other Paper and Columbus Alive? That's the perfect follow-up to the growth article.

Kudos!