To the attention of the Spruce Hill Civic Association Zoning Committee: Please forward to the following individuals or any alternates comprising the zoning committee. Please add the committee member e-mail addresses to your web site. Thank you.
Barry Grossbach; Bob and Nancy Behr; Brett Feldman; Eli Massar; Janet Finin; John Barrett; Keally McBride; Richard King; Steve Wagner. Dear members of the Zoning Committee, I saw a copy of the announcement for your upcoming zoning committee meeting, February 13. It was forwarded to the public listserv; one of the few information media that keeps the Spruce Hill community informed about important community wide issues. I implore you to move this meeting to a venue, which can accommodate the numbers of citizens potentially interested in the 11-story Hilton hotel being pushed for the residential section of 40th and Pine Streets. In an earlier e-mail to the SHCA e-mail address, I informed your association that the development team has been claiming; that a long series of, "open public forums," have been hosted by your committee. Your building is far too small to actually host such a forum if that is your intention. I also implore you to announce the developer's Feb. 13 presentation to the wider community outside the limited membership of your committee. And to include a description of the process and time period during which residents and citizens may ask questions, make observations, and statements. Community notification, public notification, is not difficult. However, there are basic standards to announce the time, date, and location of meetings. If these are not met, subsequent claims about meetings as "public meetings" are viewed as dishonest. Regardless of your own support and role in the hotel project, you have a duty as powerful individuals in this community as well as to the members of your SHCA. It is vital for individuals taking on positions as community leaders to understand that duty. Please consider my request. If you need any advice concerning the logistics of making public announcements or hosting a public forum, please feel free to contact me. If the SHCA leadership wants to constructively change its role in the community, I will help you. Sincerely, Glenn Moyer Spruce Hill citizen and business owner Cc: University City Public listserv
