Letter to the editor: Decision on zoning should not be made by town board

To the editor:
The sleepy town of Windham is my home―surprisingly, to many, given that my vision for Windham is often seen as antithetical to my rural roots. I’m a pragmatic person when it comes to solutions for our community. I believe we must be willing to find and adapt the best possible solutions to our own community, no matter their source.  We must address our community’s problems head-on as a community.
We must ask ourselves as a community, who has the right to solve critical issues in our community? Whose ideas should be valued more or less than others? We may live in a representative democracy, but that doesn’t mean that our community is not part of the democratic process. Windham is a community small enough in size that it is possible for critical issues that concern us all to be discussed and voted on by the general public when they have far-reaching consequences for present and future generations of residents. Our current zoning proposal is just such an issue facing our community.
On April 30 at 6 p.m., there will be a “Public Hearing about the Zoning Proposal” at our Town Hall. While other communities across America are attempting to reverse the negative impacts that restrictive zoning laws have created in communities like our own, we are instead attempting to enact them.
The underlying intent of all zoning laws in America is to segregate and exclude certain socio-economic groups in a community. Who are we trying to segregate from our community? Future generations of middle-class and working-class residents? Or second-home owners of this class? These are the groups who will no longer have a place at the stakeholder table in Windham if this zoning proposal is passed.
Our future as a community is a childless one. Many of the present generation of young residents are no longer able to return to their hometown to raise future generations. The process of replacement by vacant homes owned by corporations in the speculative real estate market or by wealthy second-home owners seeking to create mini-luxury estates will not save the rural character of Windham. Yet these are the people who will benefit the most from our new zoning proposal, not those who wish to build a future in Windham as full-time residents.
Make no mistake, my anti-zoning stance is not about allowing our community to be taken over by ramshackle buildings and unsightly development. No, my anti-zoning stance is about creating a more dynamic planning commission that studies the growth needed for Windham’s sustainable future. Our usable resources are limited and must be protected to maximize our potential growth in the future―growth that allows all residents to share in the beauty and majesty of our home and growth that allows our housing market to be accessible to a broad spectrum of our present and future residents. We need to ensure that our community will be affordable for long-term growth for our future. To ensure that families that choose to live in our community can thrive for generations. Our current zoning proposal is not going to allow that to happen.
I am writing this open letter to the community to come to the April 30 “public hearing” to be heard and ask this town board why five people should be allowed to decide the fates of potentially thousands? Shouldn’t that decision be borne by the entire community? Even in a representative democracy there arises the need for direct democracy to occur on an occasion such as this.

Connor R. Exum
Editor of the Bullmoose Party of Windham Newsletter
Director of the Mountain Top Issues Coalition

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The views expressed in letters to the editor are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Porcupine Soup.

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