Phil Davies [03/07/2006]

To the editor:I'm writing to encourage voters in Jackson to support performance zoning in a village overlay district on March 14 by voting yes to this amendment. That some residents feel they were not consulted in the drafting of the amendment doesn't make it a bad piece of zoning. It will give the town, the village business people and developers a more flexible regulation to work with than what currently exists yet help to preserve the character of the village. After carefully listening to the business community and the public at three lengthy meetings, all three of Jackson's selectmen voted to recommend performance zoning to the voters.The business community has stated that they want to preserve the essential character of the village district. While this is no doubt true, all of the village business properties are likely to change hands over timesome this year, some next year and some down the road, but all will change hands eventually. In fact, several are actively on the market now. The new owners may not have the same feelings about preserving the town's character as the current owners do. Geographically, the village area is quite small and, as a result, quite fragile. It would not take much of a miscue in development to destroy the character of the village. Once lost, it can never be regained.Once the bypass is complete, we are likely to see increased pressures for development north of The Memorial Hospital where the bypass rejoins Route 16. Almost immediately, there will be pressure for fast food restaurants and strip malls to capture the business lost to the bypass at the southern end of North Conway. Over time, this development pressure will spread north.Performance zoning offers the town, the business community and developers a more flexible approach than current regulations to respond to these development pressures. It permits a give and take in managing development that will benefit us all in the long run. Quite frankly, I'd rather see a group of local residents on the planning board engaged in that give and take than to have architects and corporate lawyers from a chain retailer in Arkansas push something down our throats.The current zoning regulations are simply inadequate to preserve the town's character in the face of increased development pressures. The current regulations can actually encourage the demolition of older, historic buildings and the building of things like strip malls.I urge Jackson voters to become familiar with the zoning amendments on the ballot. They are available on the web at jacksonvillage.net under "Boards and Commissions/Planning Board." There is also a question-and-answer piece about performance zoning on the Web site under "Public Notices" on the home page.