Our current mayor & her “cabal” are trying to have it both ways. They tell us that the Town is in dire straits and that only they can save us by throwing out citizen-approved plans for downtown and overbuilding. But we don't need the same people who got us in this mess to now tell us they can get us out with a hare-brained scheme.

The proposed development for downtown doesn’t have anything in common with the citizen-approved vision plan; it would block views and be too dense. The mayor and her cabal say it will be “family friendly,” but I don’t think many families are going to want to live in apartments on busy downtown streets, surrounded by assisted living/nursing home facilities and noisy events. Parking will be a nightmare. Most families have two cars and, with 404 proposed residential units, that’s 800 cars needing parking daily, not including anything going on downtown.

There is no way that Fountain Hills can support 43,000 square feet of new retail space. A study done a few years ago showed that Fountain Hills already had the most empty retail space of any town in the Valley. Mr. Yates should know from his own failed restaurant that it is not easy for new businesses to make it here.

As Cassie Hansen pointed out in her editorial several weeks ago, when comment cards were counted, the majority of people at the Council meeting opposed this development, even though the mayor said it was 50-50. The reason that most of us moved here was for the small town atmosphere and the great views. We cannot solve our problems by overbuilding and destroying the reason people move here.

Write in Ginny Dickey for mayor and connect the arrow. It is time for some new solutions!