Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?
Last night a meeting was held with “stakeholders” in the Mill Creek Park planning process. The intent of the meeting was to invite the people with an interest and adjacent to the Mill Creek Park project to meet with the team and give feedback on important issues related to the development. Among the organizations invited to send representatives to the meeting included, to name a few, Dexter Community Schools, Downtown Development Authority, the Chamber of Commerce, the Fire Department and Sheriff, the Knights of Columbus, the Scio Township Board, Mill Creek Sporting Goods, the Dexter Village Planning and Parks Commissions, and the Village Council.
All in all, we had a pretty good turn out. There were a number of people from each of the different organizations that were present. There was one group, though, that was overrepresented. The Bates Farms Homeowners Association was invited to send representatives about 10 people decided to attend the meeting of 40 people. Normally this would not be a huge concern, but in this case it did present a dynamic that influenced the meeting results. It was obvious from the outcome of the meeting that the group came in with an agenda to minimize the amount of activity or development that might happen anywhere near the neighborhood. There were comments like, “Leave the area as it is,” or, “How will people be kept from leaving garbage in the area or holding parties?” This was a typical NIMBY (not in my back yard) response, which is very discouraging. The entire point of the process was to include people and their ideas about how the area could best be used for the betterment of the entire community at large. The groups invited to the meeting were from within and outside the Village and the entire process has been funded by the Village. No one talks about the fact that Bates Farms other owners have much more land due to the Village removing the dam, nor that the flooding that has been a concern along the creek in the past will likely be eliminated, nor that fish are already migrating back up the stream as it has started to return to its original condition.
There were no questions such as, “How can we connect to the park?” which would add a way for the Bates Farms neighborhood to walk to the downtown area of the Village and could make the neighborhood a more desirable place to live. Residents in my neighborhood have been asking for access similar to this since I have lived in the Village. “How do we control invasive species on both sides of the creek so it remains a beautiful place for everyone to enjoy?” was never raised as an issue from the ecology study group. One person in the group went so far as to offer up a suggestion there should be a 300 foot wall built to separate the park from the Bates Farms neighborhood. One item that did come out was the request to keep the lines of communication open, which the Village and planning committee has done, to the extent that we contacted the local residents ourselves for their input.
Some people have said to me this should not be a concern, that we would like to have input from our neighbors, but ultimately how the land in a Village park is utilized is up to the Village. I have heard people tell me that some of those voices should be ignored, that they are nonsensical and irrational. The idea of a fence or a wall just strikes me as so unfriendly and so unlike the people I have come to know in and around Dexter that I was extremely surprised to even hear it mentioned, even if it was offered in jest. I want to see us be good neighbors and, I think, in general the Village has been a good neighbor. How do we get to a point where we can work together and build a better community for everyone? How do we avoid not making the most of this community because we are too afraid to trust? We must find a way to get to common ground, to live together side by side, and understand that neither of us is going anywhere any time soon. I think in some cases, like this one, a fence just won’t work.
