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The Alarm Went Out

Thanks go to the scores of Clinton citizens who crowded into the Green Room on Jan. 4 to speak up at the public hearing on the developer application to relocate CVS to the corner Main and Hull streets. Thanks to the efforts of the Clinton Taxpayers Association (CTA) and the Clinton Historical Society, the alarm went out about what may be in store for Clinton on this critical corner.

No one (including the few who spoke in favor of the application) spoke in support of the repulsive building design that was unanimously rejected by Clinton’s Design Review Board. Violations of site plan and design regulations were matter-of-factly presented. Traffic, drainage, evacuation route, and safety issues were in dramatic evidence.

The Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) is not legally obligated to approve a plan that fails to comply with regulations and is so vocally despised by a diversity of Clinton residents and groups.

Thanks also go to PZC, which called this public hearing, which is not required for site plan applications. The new chairman, Michael Knudsen, maintained decorum and respected the rights of all speakers, pro and con, to address the commission, in stark contrast to the chairman he replaces, Gary Bousquet. Congratulations to the commission for changing leadership. The difference was notable.

I thank very much the growing numbers of CTA contributors who support us with their repeated donations; our email and sign alerts would otherwise be impossible.

By the time this letter is published, we will know the commission’s decision. I trust they will not bend to political pressures of a few powerful and greedy interests to abandon Clinton’s zoning regulations, our Plan of Conservation and Development, and our citizens. That would be something they and Clinton would have to bear in shame for decades to come.

Pamela B. Fritz

Clinton

Pamela B. Fritz is president of the Clinton Taxpayers Association.