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8.A. - Page 339 lannin commission dvvoodci .�r cc:council(a�redwoadciix,ore .lune l7,2012 Dear Chair Borgens �nd Members of the Planning Commissivn J appose this Finger Avenue Planned develapment and ask�e Planning Commission to recommend that City Counci2 deny the application. It's impartant for me ta explain to all cvncerr�ed where I'm coming fram, I da not ogpase develvpmen#per se. �or backgro�nd, I was ari enthusiastia suppart�r of Paul Powers' plan to build 17 high-rise towers an his property, He gat wind af hovsi I felt frorn my former colleagues r�vho are now at Singer and Associates,Aaam Alberti and 5am Singer. Sam is known affectionately as TI�e �ixer, As a result of Paul's appreciatian far�rty ski�ls, contacts and attitude,he hired me as a PR cansultant to Marina Shores Village, to reacE�out ta the bicycling community. We lost. What was Paul's next move?He negotiated and h�re-designed. Paul walked and biked through neigl�borhaods,knocked on aoors and came up with a sea�eci-down alterna#i�e plaz1. Everybfldy approved.He developed Mariz�a Ons. T wish him every success. What disappoints me here is that our new neighbor, Mr. McGowan doesn't lcriock on vur doors, say�e]�o and ask us how tl�e aeighborhood works, what we think of its iook and feel, ask us for our aesthetic judgments. Of couzse, he has no obligation to do so,b�t in my experien�e,developers wha a�re community builders do just that. Instea.a, his meetings with us(whic�a oacurred one or two times and years ago) were to te�l ns what he intended to do,and if we didn°t Iike it, we wauld just have to "get tised to it." Taugh ta2k! He has chosen to create a subdivision-style develapment akin#o what might be jast fine fOT R�(�WQOi� S�IOI'E5, us�the Planned Deve�opment provisions to gain exceptions to what are aormally required for subdivisions in our city,and then plurilcs it dawn in the midd�e of my neighborhoad withoert provicting any reaeerning cornmunity benefits that 1 am aware of On the one hand,T could accept ar�d might even welcame a radical design snch as, say,a F'rank Gehry might come up with,because it eauld be judged as a work of art, ar a tzue Planned Development-style project like the Creekside Green alternat�ve because of what i#da�s ta enhance t�e ziparian carridor ar�d provide viewscapes of the historic Finger Fannhouse. S�ch radicalxsm would suit me fine.A radic�,l p�an ta crarn n,ine houses w�ere three pr�mary dweliings now stand does nat. There's been a lot af back and fvrth abaut aesthetics. I'm amused to see when an opinion is c.Qnsidered"objective"and when"subjective."For rrsy money,my aesthetic judgmenis and those o�my 75 neighbors wha�arre wzi#ken to yau is jus#as abjective as t}�e subjective j�dgments of a commissioner,a consultant or p�tblic servant. We neighbars are the ex�erts on t►'�e subject of visual degradatdori Jrere. {Aft�r l wrote that I read in the