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Transparency is Hard

Our Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) risks going back to an old system where it can’t check facts before it makes a decision, and residents of our town won’t know what’s approved until it’s too late to do anything.

After it nearly approved a propane terminal at 2772 Boston Post Road without notice and before neighbors could weigh in, PZC realized it had a problem with its old process.

When a developer in the past presented its plan at a PZC meeting, commissioners were expected to vote on it that evening, before any facts were checked, often before any neighbors knew about it. Tiny print newspaper legal notices (if anyone read them) are written with vague, technical, confusing language.

PZC found an answer: a required second date for the public hearing, typically two weeks after the first. Homeowners and concerned residents of our town have two weeks to learn what an applicant presented at that meeting; two weeks to fact check, two weeks to see if they are concerned.

Now there is pressure for less transparency, to make the second hearing optional instead of required.

Public knowledge means public pressure. Transparency is hard. When a developer can be fact checked, projects that hurt neighbors are harder to approve. If a second public hearing is optional on major projects, then developers will again push for immediate approval, before neighbors know what’s going on, before statements can be verified. (For small applicants and small projects, the review should pose the smallest burden that still allows consumer protection for neighbors and businesses.)

Our zoning needs more transparency, not less.

Walter Corbiere

Guilford