Patricia Kennedy, Green Team Member and President of ALAW, speaks to the McHenry County Planning Commission

My concern this evening arises from what we all saw and heard at your meeting last week. We have observed this before, but it was particularly obvious last week.

Especially considering the document that you are creating, as a tax paying and voting citizen, I request that each of you be Very up front in disclosing any and all connections, holdings or property interests which you may represent. And if you have any doubt in regard to those issues, that you err on the side of recusing yourself.

If you talk in specifics about one property owner's opinions and desires you would, of course, need to do that for every property owner and that certainly is not appropriate.

We have been sitting here watching you do a parcel by parcel Land Use Plan Map. That is Totally incorrect planning procedure. You have been told by staff on several occasions that you are using an incorrect procedure and still you persist. If you continue in this manner you have certainly found a unique way to destroy the credibility of this Plan and its Map.

It will be interesting to see which direction you decide to take.


Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you.

Full Disclosure!

Green Alliance hereby calls for the full disclosure from all Plan Commission members of any monetary, property or personal interest in any land being impacted by the plan, or in the alternative, recusal from Plan Commission discussion of the property that is subject of the interest. In addition the member must refrain from private discussion of personal views for the property with other plan commission members who could then represent the recused member's views at the public discussion.

Plan Map Progress

The Planning commission is going full steam creating the Land Use map that will be a part of the 2030 plan. They are going township by township and parcel by parcel, micromanaging and creating unsupportable plan designations. Tonight was "industrial uses" night.

Text amendments being drafted as a result of the pubic comments in the public review sessions should be available soon. We are waiting.

Context Sensitive Solutions: What is that?

On the County Board agenda (maybe the consent agenda) for Tuesday morning is a resolution supporting Context Sensitive Solutions as a best practice in development of local road projects. Supposedly CSS principles include the employment of early, continuous and meaningful involvement of the public and all stakeholders throughout the project development process.
What would this mean to the Alden Road project? To all road projects in the county?

The Posters Are Coming!

Four posters in the Green Alliance Education Series will be available for download and reproduction on this site very soon. Print, post and share with your friends and neighbors.

2030 Conversation meeting

Sorry you missed it. We had a small but very concerned and interactive group, with many good questions and ideas. We debuted our new information series posters. The most impressive one is the one showing the amount of impermeable coverage in Algonquin Township versus the amount in Alden Township, where "road improvements" threaten to open up Alden to the same destructive forces. Go to www.aldenroadalliance.com for details. We should all be helping Alden defeat this, but especially those of you on Kishwaukee Valley Rd. as you are next.

YOU ARE INVITED!

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR COUNTY GOVERNMENT IS PLANNING FOR YOUR FUTURE?
You are invited to the next Green Alliance meeting. We will discuss the draft 2030 plan progress, recent developments and how the plan will impact us as county residents. Green Alliance Members who have been following the process from the beginning will be sharing their observations and insights. Please join us on Thursday, August 13, 2009, at the McHenry County Farm Bureau, 1102 McConnell Rd., Woodstock at 7:00 p.m.