Groton Town Council - has a problem

An open letter to the Council

To the Groton CT Mayor, Town Council, Manager and Clerk, plus interested parties: 4/1/23

Previously, we had serious local problems involving the Mystic Oral School property almost being re-used by a developer named Respler to create a huge residential development that would have resulted in some serious overloading issues for residents living in that immediate area.

It took a major effort by a dedicated group of people to stop the progress on this project. And in order to prevent future problems of this nature, a Property Re-Use Commission (PRUC) was formed to create a new RFP (review) process in order to be certain that there would never be a "replay" of something like this again.

Apparently, there may have been a contingent on the Groton Town Council that was very much in favor of the Respler project going forward. Furthermore, from observations relating to the recent 3/28/2023 COW meeting, this contingent is now trying to come back and may even be trying to remove the actions of the PRUC.

Perhaps this could even be viewed as an attack on the PRUC and committee members themselves.

I am recalling the frustrations and anguish that many of us felt during the process of trying to stop the Respler project. The mere size of the potential population increase and the manner in which it would affect public safety was nothing more than appalling. The extra traffic load it would have created on the nearby roads would have been unbearable.

There needs to be a strong focus of common sense on any re-use of existing property that will avoid what, in this particular case, would have been a disaster.

Therefore, please do not disband or otherwise disrupt the progress of the Groton Property Re-Use Committee. We need this for our own protection as Groton citizens.

Thank you for your time.

Edward Johnson, Groton, CT
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