Pat Kennedy: Strong Words to the 2030 Plan Commission!

Good Evening,

I’m Patricia Kennedy, 20712 Streit Road, rural Harvard. I am speaking as a resident, a tax payer, a voter and as someone who cares deeply for this county and people who live here. I must speak to you this evening directly and openly.

First off, Chairman Eldridge, I want to thank you for your consideration of the public when you gave the public an opportunity to speak to all of you at both the beginning and the ending of each meeting. I think that was thoughtful and wise. Thank you.

Next, I want to speak of a P&D committee meeting that I was at a few years ago. The Imagine McHenry County group had just made a presentation and the Chair of the Committee spoke in strong support of the concept and the survey that was about to be initiated. She said with great conviction and pleasure that the results of that survey would be the corner stone, the bedrock, that the 2030 Plan would be built on. This was later supported at a County Board meeting.

However, most of this commission has ignored that survey. You have also almost completely ignored the many comments made to you when the text of the Plan draft was presented to the public a short time ago. And as of your last meeting you have almost completely ignored what the people ask of you on their review of the presentation of the Land Use Plan Map and the Land Use Plan Map chapter. In fact, some of you have ridiculed people who made comments and used the wrong words simply because they are unfamiliar with the terms. You understood what they were saying, but chose to mock them instead. How Dare You.

The public has spoken to you time after time, and time after time the majority of you have refused to listen to them. A few of you have listened and have upheld your duty to represent the huge majority of the people and of good planning precepts. To those few, I am Very grateful.

A few of you put together thoughtful, well reasoned, and reflective chapters, followed good planning practices and were also guided by what the people of this County requested. The rest of you seemed to be listening to - Well, how can I say, I probably shouldn’t say. You certainly WERE NOT following good planning practices or the huge majority of the public or the municipalities. The majority of you chose to use population projections as the basis of this Plan - And you chose to bring together your Own numbers. Although neighboring counties have been and are using NIPC (now CMAP) population projections and our own Department of Transportation largely uses those same projections YOU chose to make up your own. You also chose to project a continuation of the recent few years, ignore national trends created by the current deep recession and experts’ opinions that the economy will not rebound into the same type and scope of development it left behind. The years that you used had unprecedentedly rapid car-culture growth that sprawled into the countryside. How short sighted.

Some of you have helped to put together excellent work and then apparently did not have the courage to stand behind that work. In some cases you have argued for what “your clients would accept”. That is shocking, disappointing and something that I hope you will correct in the future.

Speaking to the majority of you, you have betrayed the trust of the people, ignored what they have ask of you time after time and appear to be serving a tiny minority rather the huge majority. That is despicable and unforgivable. It is my desire that your positions and actions on this plan be made known to as many people as possible and as quickly as possible. May your children and grandchildren forgive you for they will certainly have to pay for the bad decisions you are making here tonight.

Thank you, Chairman Eldridge.