On Wednesday, at 7 p.m., the Lebanon City Council will discuss 18 proposed zoning ordinance changes. Three will be on the ballot; the remainder will be decided by the council.
While I have spent some years on the City Council, the Zoning Board and am a member of the Board of Assessors, I found researching these proposals complex and the rationale for the changes difficult to understand.
Do they serve only one project or developer? Shouldn’t changes be for the benefit of residents, who prefer an attractive and functional city? An attractive city does not need a number of rectangular block complexes, some called condos, some hotels and some low-income. The title may change, the appearance does not. And negative changes can occur depending on the language of the ordinance.
Here are some of my concerns:
■ Too many conditional use permits are being changed to “permitted use.”
■ “Indoor recreational facility” is to be a permitted use. What is the definition?
■ Why is Mechanic Street to be designated a secondary street and Mascoma Street a primary street? If a property fronts on a primary street, the building has to reserve a minimum of 1,000 square feet or one-third of the gross floor area (whichever is less) for nonresidential uses.
■ Why should front-yard parking be allowed? If there is not adequate parking, why consider the project?
■ Why is “house of worship” in an R-3 District being changed to a permitted use instead of a special exception in a district that is primarily for single housing?
I believe major projects should have setbacks compatible with the size and height of the complex to protect adjoining properties.
I also believe all proposed changes to the zoning ordinance should be placed on the ballot. The City Council has the authority to do this.
The city should initiate an information campaign regarding these proposals, as to the originator and the purpose of each. Let voters decide if these changes are to their benefit. They are the ones having to live with the consequences.
FRANK E. MASTRO
Lebanon
Editor’s note: Visit lebanonnh.gov/live for information about accessing city meetings online.
There is a missing sidewalk link between Hanover and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
My walk back to Hanover from a recent DHMC appointment followed a lovely plowed path along the North Access Road until I reached Route 120. Snow piled along the guardrail then forced me to walk near fast moving vehicles for 200 yards until I got to Buck Road, where I could access the sidewalk. Fortunately, no bikes were coming uphill.
New, safe sidewalks connect from there to downtown. Can something be done to complete the sidewalk connection to DHMC?
SARAH YOUNG
Hanover
Thanks to all who have expressed their appreciation for the work being done to establish skating paths on Mascoma Lake in Enfield (“Cleared skating track on Lake Mascoma was delightful,” Jan. 15). The outpouring of support has been wonderful, and the joy we’ve seen on people’s faces as they enjoy all the lake has to offer in the wintertime has been heartwarming.
For safety reasons, when you go on the ice, please wear a helmet, knee and elbow pads, and carry “ice claws” on a strap around your neck.
To support the Mascoma Lake Skating Association in its endeavor to keep the ice plowed throughout the season, please visit our website, mascomalakeskatingassociation.com.
Donations may be made online or by sending a check to MLSA, P.O. Box 55, Enfield, N.H. 03748.
CAROL WILLIAMS
Lebanon
The writer is the treasurer of the Mascoma Lake Skating Association.
Having read “White Riot,” the Jan. 13 opinion piece in The New York Times by Thomas B. Edsall, I wish to propose an alternative cause of the uprising at the Capitol.
I respectfully lay the total blame squarely at the foot of the teachings of national and global business schools.
By concentrating purely on the major responsibility of a chief executive officer to his shareholders, at the expense of the workers, CEOs have created big holes in the lives of their workers that are now being filled with extreme anger and violence.
Missing in the national, political and social spheres is the concept that CEOs have moral, ethical and social responsibilities toward the people who work for them, down to the lowest levels.
If attention had been paid over the post-World War II years to these responsibilities, we would not be in the pickle we are in today.
INGE BROWN
Wilder