Please know that you don't need anything flashy to write a letter to the board, but please do write, call, or email them all ASAP to tell them how you feel. 47 have been received to date, and the more that they hear from us, the more likely they will be to vote in our best interest.
Hello Perry,
I would like to introduce myself to you, as I am new to this community. My name is *** , I live at _-Address-_, and I am currently in decision for a master's degree in development practice (specifically about safe and effective means sustainable community growth and development). Through my education I have specifically learned about the long term consequences of development such as what is being proposed in Ixonia. My perspective is that this proposal has those of you on the board dazzled by the money, but not fully understanding the risks and burden our community will bear and how it will shape our future growth and opportunities. I am writing to you to talk about the LNG proposal for Ixonia. I could lay out all of the reasons that this proposal is bad for Ixonia, but I am sure that you have already read the arguments on the Saveixonia.com website and heard from other very informed residents. I could talk to you about how popular opinion is against this idea, but I am sure that you have already seen that there is a petition going around with nearly 1000 signatures, or a third of your constituency to date. So instead I am going to tell you my story, knowing that I am just one of many people in your community who will be significantly impacted by this new proposal. My husband and I moved to Ixonia nearly two years ago. We have together lived in both Colorado and on the east coast, and knew that it was time for us to find the place where we wanted to settle. We knew that we wanted to live in an agricultural community within a 50 mile radius of an urban area. It was important to us that we felt safe, that people were kind, that the landscape was open, and where we could afford to purchase a piece of land. When we found our 40 acres in Ixonia we knew that this was just what we had been looking for, and went above our budget to purchase because it was so perfect for us. We had the whole country available to us, but chose to invest in your community. So far we have loved it here and made great friends and feel welcomed and at home. I have held a dream for most of my adult life to own and operate a small natural farm. I have been working in small farm consulting for many years. My husband and I decided that in addition to that we would like to operate a bed and breakfast, small farm to table restaurant or some other agrotourism enterprise. We figured that eventually once we got on our feet with our farm we could start expanding into such a venture. Before moving to this community I had studied the Agricultural preservation and land use plan of Jefferson county and within it, the very first goal is to "preserve the “rural character” and aesthetic quality of Jefferson County." The goals and aspirations put forth within that document had me feeling that my specific goals for our property and business would align nicely with the community goals for development. When I heard about the proposed LNG facility in my neighborhood my heart broke. This new facility shatters all my dreams for my new property and any future business on my property. I had hopes that my farm would be a place where urbanites could come and enjoy the farm experience, where they could stay overnight, pet animals, eat local food, and be transported for a short time into their agrarian dreams. Businesses like mine could draw more revenue for other small farmers, and create more opportunities for growth creating a town that instead of being an industrial outpost for the city, could instead be a modern and prosperous agritourism destination. This new facility will shatter any hope for this happening. People will not want to come to visit a farm that overlooks an industrial site. My new farm with all its rural charm will be diminished in value and its development potential basically shut down. As a person who is working on creating a family, the risks of living so close to a potentially explosive facility are more than I care to bear. My children would go to a school which is unprepared to handle an event should the facility have a crisis. All of this has created a situation wherein my husband and I have had to sit down to talk about other options about where we would want to live, which is so sad to us, as this was to be the home where we would stay for the rest of our lives. Due to the fact that this facility is already in the works, we won't even be able to sell this house yet, as in order to sell we will have to disclose the imminence of the new LNG facility, which according to a realtor will likely net us a 20% or more loss on our house value from 2 years ago when we purchased it, making us currently underwater on our mortgage. I don't understand why you, our elected officials, would let this happen to our beautiful town and its hardworking residents. The 500k that the town will receive for this proposal comes out to only $120/person per year. We would gladly pay 4x that to protect our community from what will serve to be the first of a series of industrializations that will be sure to come once this proposal is made into a reality. This money that you will be receiving is not free. It comes with a cost that is born by all property owners of this community who will be in essence saddled with a loss of their home revenue and capacity to sell, as this community will immediately become a less attractive place to settle and raise a family. I am sure that you know that families look at things like school performance and safety before moving to a new community. Do you not understand that having an explosive facility near an elementary school is bad for both the community optics as well as the business as people who have options will choose other ones, leaving only those who are desperate to live in Ixonia. I want to live in Ixonia, I chose to live in Ixonia despite the fact that my husband was offered double his income to live somewhere else. We are invested in being here, but with this new action on behalf of the community, I am rethinking my choices. I sincerely hope that you will hear both me and the voices of the community who are loudly saying NO to this proposal. The community is banding together despite not getting notices from either the town or the company about the risks they are facing but through the power of community organizing alone. They are banding together to fight you, the people who are supposed to be looking out for our best interests because they have lost faith in you. Please be the people who we are needing you to be in support of our best interests, and hear our voices when we say that we don't want this in our community. I would love to speak with you, and plan to attend tomorrow's meeting to ask questions on this matter.
