City Resiliency Workshop Recap

When I arrived, one of several consultants started a slide presentation that set the goals for the resilience plan as "a set of common priorities which are considered necessary to address the local conditions and climate change hazards and vulnerabilities." Their job was to talk to residents to determine what residents see as the "common priorities" that should be addressed. I felt things were starting off on the right foot.

However, when asked what they meant by "resilience," I was disturbed that no one on the team of consultants working on our Resiliency Plan could provide an answer. After an awkward silence they invited attendees to read the definition of resilience that was printed out at one of the activity stations. At these stations, we were invited to fill out post-its with "one word" that describes our vision for a resilient Lambertville. We also were invited to place little blue dots on a city map to identify locations where we have seen flooding in town. As we were filling out post-its and placing stickers, the consultants asked us about our resiliency concerns. 

When the post-it activities wrapped up, the consultants reported back on common themes that they heard from residents. When they did not even mention the LHS Redevelopment Plan as a community concern, the consultants lost all credibility in the eyes of the audience. Attendees raised their hands, hoping to ask questions, but they were ignored. It became apparent that there was no intention of having a real community discussion. In short, I think most attendees would agree that it was a waste of time at best, and certainly not a genuine attempt to connect with residents.

This is not what residents mean by calling for more "community engagement". The City does not need to spend any money to hire consultants to learn from residents. We would be happy to work with you all directly and follow through on real solutions.

We ask our Council members to do the following:

1. Please reject the proposed LHS Redevelopment Plan. 

2. Ask the judge for a final extension.

It's hard to take the Mayor seriously when he claims to want to work regionally to address stormwater management issues from surrounding municipalities, yet refuses to work locally where we actually have control and past experience. Have we learned nothing from the Lamberts Hill development and its devastating impact on the residents on North Union Street? We have a legitimate reason to rethink this plan and avoid another tragedy. After they reject the current draft, Council needs to ask the judge to give us an extension to reevaluate our affordable housing locations in the wake of Ida. While this should have been done immediately after Ida, the public only learned of this plan less than a month ago because we were not invited to participate as this deal was being worked out behind closed doors. I hope Council can see how unfair this process has been to residents.

3. Work directly with the community on concrete solutions.

Finally, we are calling on Council to work directly with the community to identify alternate locations and incentivize property owners to address our affordable housing obligation. 

-Shaun Ellis