D- DAY IS UPON US

Tonight November 1, 2006. A day that will live in infamy.....well maybe not. The Town Council will do their best to get through the requests for recusal and not to mention all the legalease that will occur.
The Mayor will have to answer charges about her bias to the Downtown LLC group, and I suspect the bias she has towards Councilmember Schallenkamp also. My belief on the latter is that Mr. Schallenkamp to state the sky was a beautiful shade of blue, and the mayor would argue with him.

Councilmember Schallenkamp will have to address his recusal request also. When it goes to the council for a vote the decision could rest in the hands of the above mentioned mayor. Of course, there is the hope that the council would not go to a tie, and not have to involve the mayor. Considering what is at stake for the developers, I find it hard to believe they would stake sooo much on the possibility of a vote by a supporter of theirs??? But anything is possible.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the Downtown LLC is trying to have Mr. Schallenkamp recused for ANY projects that they bring before the council. Bonterra, Downtown, Potter and Fincher....or any project brought by Moser or Harrell. Basically rendering Mr. Schallenkamp useless for those specific project, ultimately, taking the power out of the hands of the voters that put him into office. Or at least until the numbers on the council favor them again.
The sad part is that this won't be rectified tonight....surely which ever side loses this battle will ultimately take it to superior court for another round of fighting.
In the mean time projects by Harrell and Moser would sit until the court rules. We all know that time is money.
Of all the conditions that Harrell and Moser want changed, condition 44 seems to be one of the more important ones. They in essence want the town to use their power of eminent domain to acquire access on a road from park rd to south fork road. I happen to know that no offers have been made by the developers in question to the land owners in question...or at least not all of them. The question then becomes if eminent domain is used by the town to provide access to the developers then who really benefits from such an act???It won't be the people that are having the land taken. Or the majority of residents in this town. It would be done at the benefit of the developers...plain and simple. They are hoping beyond hope, that the use of eminent domain would serve as a catalyst for getting a favorable road study. Which they don't have one yet. There is other issues that could be costly for them just not as costly...I am referring to the open space criteria of 15% as opposed to the 10% they are at currently.
Questions that may be answered tonight are as follows:

1. Will the council back fellow councilmembers and keep the power in the hands of the voters that put them in office?
2. Will the developers get their way and continue to control every aspect of this town?
3. Which group runs to the Superior Court first?
4. How much longer will the Conditional Use/Special use permits via quasai judicial means continue????
5. When will the council tell a developer "NO" resoundingly so as to make the conditions they place on a project permanent? Why place conditions on a project if you are only going to let them come back and ease into something more acceptable to the developers?
6. Will the backing of the mayor "pay-off" for the developers in question?
7. Will good triumph over evil?
8. Will anything really be answered tonight?
9. Will this ultimately be a test case for the town, county, and state?

My opinion is this "Peyton Place" will continue one way or the other. The next election will be huge for the town. Three (3) Councilmembers and the Mayor will be up for election. The developers will surely back those candidates willing to do what they want on a regular basis. It will be up to the citizens of this town to elect people that will listen to all, make good decisions based on whats best for the town as a whole. The last election started the trend, and the next one needs to continue to elect those people that are not influenced by the developers and big money people.