Please officials, obey comp plan

letter to the editor
Published: June 26, 2008

Editor:

I was sorry to read the letter last week from the chairman of the Madison County Planning Commission. It gives the impression that without adequate citizen input the commission and the board of supervisors can do whatever they want on matters such as the approval of new cell phone towers. He noted only one person opposed at the meeting (even though that person represented a group which has many Madison County members).

I recall that months of work went into revising the Madison County Comprehensive Plan, with a lot of citizen input. There are numerous references in the comp plan citing the need to preserve the scenic beauty of our great county, and there were discussions that we don’t want to make the same mistakes

as our neighboring counties.

Members of the planning commission are appointed to follow the comp plan, and we elect the board of supervisors, expecting them to do the same. Citizens should not have to attend each meeting to make sure that is happening.

Yet, that’s exactly what the chairman said. If this is the way things work, let’s get rid of the planning commission and poll citizens directly on every controversial issue. Obviously that’s not feasible, so let’s urge the planning commission and the board of supervisors to do their job, pay attention to the comp plan and not render it a useless document.

I’m not opposed to cell towers in places that don’t spoil scenic beauty and to require them to be disguised to look like trees. There are many citizens who are flatly opposed to locating them anywhere our public officials choose to put them, but not everyone has the luxury of being able to attend every county meeting to oppose controversial locations.

Please, please, please do not approve any more cell phone tower applications that ignore the comp plan’s intent to preserve the beauty of our county.

Pat Eveland
Madison