The time has finally come to put our RED SHIRTS ON and HAVE OUR VOICES HEARD - OR THE ENTIRE COUNTY MAY BE DOOMED TO UNBRIDLED DEVELOPMENT WITH NO POWER TO STOP IT!! This is NOT "fake news" or false alarm.. this is the REAL DEAL!! We are being directly threatened by a potential decision that will be made either for or against us at a BOCC Hearing:
Many of you will recall when I sent out the original "Kiss Your Rural Lifestyles GOODBYE!" flyer to my rural neighbors warning of a MASS INVASION OF DEVELOPMENT COMING... over 350 of us stepped outside our comfort zones and attended an emergency town hall, then all of us responded IMMEDIATELYplus UNITED and reacted with ACTION! You'll never convince me that we would have succeeded as well as we did to successfully defend our rural lifestyles if we hadn't DEMANDED our united voices be heard.
Prepare yourselves for this shocker: NONE of the public testimony presented throughout the workshop hearings will be considered by the BOCC to make their decision! Unless each Commissioner specifically orders those public records, they will only have contributions by Scott Poorman, surely Drew Dittman, Swartout's planning engineer, plus Community Development's recommendations . We've even been told outright by one of the P & Z Commissioners that "our voices and input does NOT represent what's best for the County!" It's even been recommended by a high ranking county official that "we" essentially back off and let the County decide what's best for the County's people and future.
DUE TO THE URGENCY AND IMPORTANCE OF OUR ACTIONS: We have LESS THAN 3 DAYS to react with a plan of action, otherwise ALL OF OUR PAST EFFORTS may end up in vain and we'll surely lose any future development opposition efforts.
First and foremost, we need to convince the County that we are rallying rural citizens COUNTY-WIDE to protest and defend against legal language written BY AND FOR PRO-DEVELOPMENT attorneys, politicians and determined greedy developers. Our ONLY CHOICE is to demonstrate the power of the voting public by notifying the County that we will need a large venue again, like Boswell Hall, again!
By flooding the Commissioner's mailbox directly with responses that demonstrate hundreds of us plan to attend the Hearing regarding ORA17-0001 and oppose any and all proposed changes by Scott Poorman to the existing County Zoning Ordinances. We absolutely need to exceed the nearly 200 person capacity of the County meeting room in order to get a postponement until a larger venue can be scheduled. This will give us time to organize (again), educate(more) and strategically plan (again).
Here is a link to email the Commissioners: http://www.kcgov.us/contactus.
It is imperative for us to each react with the same alarm and intense passion we did for Swartout's rezone request! We've proven that when our scenic landscape, wildlife habitat and rural lifestyles are at stake - and they are, but potentially worse this time as the entire RURAL County will be affectedINDEFINITELY!. We must continue to fight for our rights to enjoy our rural lives without further threats!
Please, contact your neighbors, civic and church groups, network on social media, submit letters to the press.. do anything and everything in your power and ability to defend our rural county lands, for everyone's sake and for generations that will follow us!
I promise to keep everyone up to date on changes plus include a lot more detail than I've covered here.. Don't hesitate to contact me and if I don't have answers, I'll do my best seek answers and report back.
We're each counting EVERY ONE of our concerned rural neighbors to participate and support this critical opposition campaign!