Alert: New Ipswich Charrette

Residents of New Ipswich you are about to be Delphi’d!

If you don’t want HUD making decisions about zoning in your town…
If you don’t want to lose more property rights…
If you don’t want taxes to go sky-high to support urbanized areas in your town…
If you don’t want William Ayers and the UN running your schools…

…you MUST get to this event.

The only way to ensure high community participation — one of the key components of the charrette — is to have a specific goal. The Rindge charrette fell through the cracks after three years of work when the town at-large objected to the charrette’s inclusion in the town’s Master Plan, and had it removed in a resounding town-wide vote this March. In a recent interview, Rindge Select Board Chair Roberta Oeser said that there was nothing wrong with the charrette process itself. It only wants a broad base of participation in order for it to be effective, and prevent the kind of backlash that Rindge experienced. New Ipswich Select Board members did not seem confident they could gather broad-based participation when they decided to move forward with the process earlier this month.

A charrette is an opportunity for a larger part of the community to be directly involved in the future of a town. And it’s not as time consuming as devoting several years to being a member of a town board. If residents can find the time to take two days out of their schedule to sit down alongside town officials and put their ideas to paper, they can have an impact on the future of what New Ipswich might look like.

The residents can have an impact on the future of their town by virtue of VOTING at the town meeting. They should not have to fight off master plans created by the ‘visions’ of the American Planning Association, the EPA, HUD and the DOT, all influenced by some UN utopian dream.

The charrette process in New Ipswich is planned for September 19 and 20. The process of a charrette is intended to sway the public, not hear their concerns.

The group that will be leading the session is Plan NH.

Plan NH, a NON governmental organization, is involved just like it was in Rindge. There is nothing on the New Ipswich website about it as to the details, yet. But you have to ask yourself, why does the town have to pay a non-profit PR firm to help residents make decisions? Why come between residents and the town meeting?

We suggest New Ipswich residents find out about this before September 19-20th and plan to attend.

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Contact Larry Cleveland for more info.