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Former planning director urges ‘no’ vote

Posted 10/24/11

To the Editor: From 1997 to 2005 I served as Planning and Development Director for the Town and Village of Potsdam. Although I now live far from the North Country, I hold fond memories of Potsdam. …

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Former planning director urges ‘no’ vote

Posted

To the Editor:

From 1997 to 2005 I served as Planning and Development Director for the Town and Village of Potsdam. Although I now live far from the North Country, I hold fond memories of Potsdam.

For those seven years, I was the only person who regularly attended both Town and Village Board meetings.

I watched the two Boards struggle with issues and saw how they developed different, sometimes conflicting, visions for the community, but views that I am sure reflected what Board members believed to be in the interests of their constituents.

I am not surprised that little appears to have changed. Working on community development projects in both the Town and the Village, it was apparent to me that they were, in many ways, different communities. The idea presented by some individuals during the current debate that dissolving the Village will result in a single vision for the community and its development (along with less political squabbling) may be hopeful, but I believe misguided.

Different visions for the Village and Town have existed for years because the Village and the Town are different enough places, one a surprising urban village, the other a rural area transitioning from agriculture to residential.

For decades, Village Boards have by consensus worked to maintain a healthy downtown, encouraged redevelopment after fires, supported good planning and active code enforcement, and agreed that water and sewer should only be extended with annexation.

In this way, the Boards have supported the economic health of the Village and protected its always limited tax base. Like it or not, the Village (and Town) depend greatly on the colleges and hospital as employers and sources of commerce.

An ability to attract doctors, faculty, parents and students is good economic development, and in a county that has struggled to keep much of its industry, it is in the Village’s interest to protect the attributes that contribute to that ability.

For the Village, a historic downtown, street trees, and well maintained neighborhoods are among other things, economic assets. A Village government is much more likely to focus on their preservation than a Town government with competing visions and interests.

The Town Board has had a different vision, one which is basically about providing necessary, but generally minimal services, while keeping the tax rate low. In the past dozen years this has focused on retail development near the Village boundary, accompanied by an endless Town Board demand for Village water and sewer services without annexation, an effort to keep Town-outside-Village taxes low, regardless of the detriment to Village taxpayers—who are also Town taxpayers.

Dissolution will change Potsdam, forever. It will attempt to merge two different communities into one, leaving few residents, I suspect, ultimately satisfied. Dissolution will generate a decade of bickering as it gets sorted out.

Years later I remain proud of what the Planning and Development Office and its partners achieved for both the Town and the Village. I am just as proud of housing rehabilitation work in the Town as I am of the work done to rebuild a block of Market Street.

But in my years as planner, I came to understand that the Town and Village were different, that their residents had different needs and desires, and that the most difficult issues were when these desires—call them visions—were in conflict.

Potsdam is a great community, the place which comes to mind when I think of “home.” But the Village and Town are different in many ways, and trying to merge them is a dangerous experiment with little potential benefit and the risk of losing much, including the potential for economic development.

I urge Village residents to vote No on dissolution.

Paul Stevenson

Former Potsdam Village/Town Planning and Development Director

Abuja, Nigeria