Quality of Life

Quality of Life is a most important topic.  It has been a dominant and recurring theme since we started eastportdefined.  Everything comes back to quality of life in all of its diverse facets.

We have considered how people feel about quality of life and have established metrics to be used as environmental baselines, noting current conditions.  Our hope is that proposals for development will not result in diminished quality of life for our community.  This should be part of a continuing discussion we have to live with long after projects are completed.

We also provided a survey on residents’ perceptions of quality of life in Eastport.  Our timing on the survey may have been off, there being this whole national thing going on when the survey was introduced.  The discussion remains worth pursuing.

Here is Alderman Ross Arnett’s detailed reminder of the agenda for his Town Hall, to be held next Thursday.  His topic for this Town Hall, as ours has been for years, is Quality of Life.

Ward 8 and Friends

I have gotten some interesting responses to the notice of the Town Hall Meeting Thursday 16 February at the Eastport Fire Station. Some have asked for more specifics as to what I mean when referring to “Quality of Life” here in Eastport. Of course, the reason I wanted to hold this meeting is because I want to hear your definition of the topic. But, here’s how I think about it.

I see quality of life as a two-sided ledger. On one side are the positive things that make living in Eastport worthwhile. On the other side are those things that could make living in Eastport better – or make it worse. In the better or worse category, I have heard from many of you about the potential impact of new development in the City on adequate public facilities such as roads, parking and schools. On the other hand, new development can bring positives such as more shopping opportunities and potential new jobs.

Somewhere in this mix is a balance. What I need to hear from you is “where’s the balance?” Have we already passed the tipping point, are we nearing it, and how do we balance private property rights with community needs? I think the latter calls for city planning rather than just processing zoning applications, but now I’m giving you my bias.

I really want to hear your thoughts about the new development already underway or coming soon to Eastport and the City. By the way, land use/development is not the only quality-of-life issue. Public safety, safe sidewalks and streets, recreational opportunities, access to the water, good schools, a clean and green environment, flooding and sea level rise, and so on are all matters that do or will affect our quality of life.

This is a complicated topic, and one frankly that I’m a little frightened to broach. But your emails, phone calls and direct conversations tell me that it is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and it needs to be addressed now. The bottom line is a concern about whether things are getting better or getting worse. I suspect that you all have your own list of good and not so good.

The second goal of the meeting is to develop a list of action items to address the not so good side of the list. Most especially, an action list of things that I can do as your elected City official.

Thank you.

Ross Arnett, Alderman Ward 8

Another addition to the Discussion on Eastport Shopping Center

The following, concerning the proposed new development at the Eastport Shopping Center, was contributed by a concerned Eastport resident. The traffic study that was attached is far too long to be reproduced here, but it was prepared for Bay Engineering by Traffic Concepts in September 2016.

Can you post anything about this? Attached is the traffic study indicating that 403 spaces should be allowed rather than what the code mandates, 522 spaces.

 The ECA has asked that the City not waive the legal requirement for spaces for the planned 127 rental units, which amounts to 1.4 cars per unit.  Luckily the Mayor, who met with ECA members is concerned about parking as well and will not waive the parking requirements for the shopping center developers.

 

Likewise, the city is going to take another look at traffic as the last study was seriously flawed.  It improperly used a growth rate of .5% when the state calls for a 4% rate.   The traffic study didn’t take into account all the other projects in the pipeline or the fact that we have a bridge that opens once an hour 8 months of the year.

Town Hall

From Alderman Arnett:

I will be holding my next Town Hall Meeting on Thursday 16 February at 7 PM in the Eastport Fire Station. I will give some brief updates from the City, but the primary purpose will be to discuss “Quality of Life” issues in Eastport. More specifically, I need and want to hear your definitions of what constitutes quality of life, or conversely, what detracts from quality of life in the City and in Ward 8 more specifically.

Assuming that we can reach some consensus of what quality of life means, I plan to move the discussion on to what needs to be done to maintain or improve quality of life here. I want to hear from you what I can do as Alderman to help address this issue within the City and our Ward. By the way, this is not just a Ward 8 matter and I’m hoping that my colleagues from the City Council will join us for the evening. I am also inviting the City planning staff to attend as they are a vital part of this process.

So, please save this date and plan to attend.

Thank you.

Ross