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Considerable and Lasting Consequences

At 6:30 p.m., next Monday, Feb. 13, Clinton’s Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) will meet to decide on the site-plan permit application to relocate CVS to the corner of Hull and West Main streets. The political pressure on members of the commission by a few very powerful Republicans in favor versus a broad cross-section of Clintonites who spoke in opposition is formidable for this group of citizen volunteers. Whatever decision they make will have considerable and lasting consequences for Clinton.

The applicant has an apparently determined ally on the commission in its former Republican chairman, Gary Bousquet, who was replaced as chairman by a bi-partisan coalition of commissioners at the PZC’s annual meeting in December. The applicant’s efforts to box-in the commission with a site-plan application and thereby avert a public hearing was temporarily thwarted by commissioners who voted 7 to 1 in favor of holding a public hearing, even though it is not a site-plan-application requirement.

In a letter to the commission dated Jan. 4, the applicant’s attorney raised questions about an un-posted “gathering” of as many as seven commissioners. He claims to have first been tipped off by a question Mr. Bousquet asked PZC’s counsel in a public meeting on Dec. 12. Mr. Bousquet has since filed his own Freedom of Information Act Commission complaint against fellow commissioners. This vengeful act attempts to sabotage the commission and delegitimize its authority as elected officials in this matter and in his removal.

The commission has numerous legitimate regulatory reasons to deny the application. Public sentiment opposes it. If approved, this is a mistake Clinton and CVS will have to live with for decades because a few powerful and greedy political residents will go to any lengths to benefit one another, regardless of public interest.

The PZC should hang tough!

Kirk Carr

Clinton