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People For Puget Sound Stance on Black Point Development
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Jeanie Orr
211 Cv I
From: Jeanie Orr
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 7:42 AM
To: Michelle McConnell
Cc: AI Scalf; Stacie Hoskins; Jeanie Orr
Subject: FW: People For Puget Sound Stance on Black Point Development
From: AI Bergstein [mailto:albergstein@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 11:22 AM
To: #Long-Range Planning; Peter Downey; Tom Giske; Bill Miller
Cc: Mike Sato; Rein Attemann; Jill Silver; Gabrielle LaRoche
Subject: People For puget Sound Stance on Black Point Development
Michelle, as the Board of Director from the Olympic Peninsula for People For Puget
Sound, I want to state our opposition at this time to the Black Point development.
We understand that many of the permits and legal hurdles are continuing to be
won by the developers. However, I want to point out one issue that is worth
considering in your deliberations. Many developers around the US have been
severely hurt by the recession, and an enormous amount cannot sell lots in their
developments. This has caused a large amount of bankruptcies. This has been
documented recently by the New York Times in an article on some developers in
Florida. See http;Ll\IYw\IY,nytirrles.cQm12_QQ91Q5124LQ~LsJnessj24gQJt.btmJ:?
r= 1&scp=2&sq=florida%20resort%20developer&st=cse for a full article on
Florida developer Bobby Ginn.
The concern we have is that the development may be allowed, based on
assumptions of sales and intended environmental protections, and then, after
c1earcutting the near shore environment, creating environmental damage, that the
development would end up going bankrupt due to low sales. That would leave the
county vastly worse off than if the project was never started.
What I would ask the County to consider is putting stiff requirements on sales
levels that would guarantee that the environmental protections of the project
would have to be funded before destruction of the environment begins. This could
be in a form of an escrow account that forces the developer to sell so many lots
before work can begin. It could be tiered in, like the Treehouse project was, in
phases. I'm sure there are other methods I'm unaware of to protect this beautiful
point, the estuary and Hood Canal below it.
Again, we strongly oppose this planned development on the shores of Hood Canal,
and would prefer to see it never happen. We believe that it will lead to degradation
6/15/2009
People For Puget Sound Stance on Black Point Development
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of Hood Canal and the estuaries around the project. However, if that is not
possible, having the county demand an approach to guarantee the development
actually happens according to plan, seems to be a small price to ask.
AI Bergstein
People For Puget Sound
Port Townsend
6/15/2009