44°
To the Editor:
Supervisor Michael Grace recently challenged Yorktown to have an “intellectually honest” conversation as to what is a "wetland."
I'm always suspicious of any politician asking for an "honest" conversation, intellectually or otherwise. That’s an oxymoron.
I don’t want Grace to label me as a global warming alarmist or conspiracy theorist, but I have my doubts concerning Grace’s true rationale.
As you may know, Grace and his Town Board have green lighted several new developments in formerly protected wetlands.
I don't want to be a stick-in-the-mud, but Grace's granting those wetland variances has raised many eye brows.
Some formerly unbuildable wetlands have become suddenly very valuable and very developable.
Seems like Grace’s definition of a wetland seems to be at odds to what most people using common sense standards know to be a wetland.
In Yorktown, when it comes to developing in wetlands, it appears that if there's a will there's a deal.
It looks like most concerns of the Town Board about building on wetlands can simply be remediated by planting a few trees in another location.
Supervisor Grace is doing all of Yorktown a disservice when he randomly changes the definition of a wetland whenever it suits him. Grace's arguments to the contrary won't hold any water.
The wetland laws were established for a legitimate reason. The sole purpose of wetlands has historically been to protect the environment, fowl and wildlife of Yorktown.
Birds should be the only things using wetlands to feather their own nest.
The way that Supervisor Grace and his Councilmen presently make weltand decisions leaves too much room for shenanigans. There is no oversight or mechanism in place to prevent a conflict of interest from occurring.
Additional safeguards need to be implemented before the word ‘honest’ can even be remotely associated with Grace’s wetland conversation.
I don’t know how much of Yorktown is protected ‘wetlands,’ but I predict that there will be far less in the near future thanks to Grace.
Grace and company have allowed the constant drip, drip, drip of cronyism to accumulate and create the swamp that has become Yorktown politics.
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