Not in my neighborhood
Dear editor:
Save our neighborhoods! Forty-four years ago I moved to the country! I was one block inside the city limits in a fairly new subdivision nestled in the woods, which provided peaceful surroundings and all the benefits of living within the city limits. For about 20 years, we enjoyed peace and quiet. All the neighborhood children grew up playing in the woods. There were steep hills for sledding and so little traffic they could ride their bikes anywhere. Then the bypass was constructed one block north of our subdivision and before long it was Cornerstone Market Place to the west and the Oaks and Southern Ridge garden homes to the east.
More recently our planning commission approved a conditional use permit to provide a place for a church in our neighborhood in spite of the neighbors’ objections. Little did we imagine that a church in our subdivision would expand to enough parking for 200 cars.
It finally seemed that we were stable, as there was nothing left to develop once the board of directors denied a request for a catfish restaurant at the edge of the neighborhood several years ago. Now the city plans to build a 170-foot water storage tank in our residential neighborhood and here we go again.
I can think of no positive impact that tower, only 10 feet shorter than the Medical Arts Building, would have on Broadmoor Subdivision; only negative ones. Is our planning commission not supposed to consider the impact of a conditional use permit on the neighborhood, or do they just plan to save on the city’s expenses at our expense?
The simple facts are these: I don’t want to look at the tower, I don’t want my sunlight blocked and the stars obscured, I don’t want to see the tower lights at night, I don’t want to listen to bulldozers clear the land, I don’t want to listen to them cut down massive oak trees, I don’t want to listen to them demolish the existing house, I don’t want to listen to them build the tower, I don’t want to wonder what antennas will adorn the tower and if electricity and generators will accompany them, nor do my neighbors. Hopefully on July 18 the Hot Springs Board of Directors will hear our voices. Susan Batterton Broadmoor Subdivision Hot Springs