Skate Park commentary wrong

Dear Editor,

Whoever wrote the editorial “Our View: Skate park mess gets worse” did not read the county ordinances. Nothing in the ordinances allows the council to excuse itself and appoint an “impartial hearing officer or body.” We are a county of laws that all, including the council, must follow. The ordinance defining council’s hearing the appeal is very specific. It does not direct council “to pass judgment on itself.” It directs council to decide if P&Z’s decision to approve the site plan based upon certain criteria was done correctly.

Council had to make its decision based upon the P&Z record. In any legal appeal new evidence may not be introduced. The appellants attempted to introduce new evidence and attempted to imply that P&Z could not do its jobs correctly because it did not have copies of all the plans in front of them and instead asked questions of the county staff. The implication was that county staff was not answering P&Z’s questions truthfully. The specious argument about the size of the skate park was an attempt to muddy the waters.

Is it 4000 square feet or is it 0.4 acres? What the appellants seemed to say was this was an attempt to mislead, not inform. They attempted to equate the size of the skating area and the size of the entire park.

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