Dear Editor:
At 7 p.m., May 20, the Atlas Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on their new master plan at the Goodrich Middle School cafeteria.
It is ironic that they will hold a public hearing on a plan at the schools that this plan has the potential to destroy by opening up over 6,000 acres of land for a mobile home park development that will flood our schools with students whose parents contribute no property taxes to help pay for the school expenses.
The plan begins by identifying a need in Atlas Township for almost 200 homes valued at under $90,000, for people whose incomes are less than $30,000. It fails to identify the age group of those people, who are most likely seniors. Why? Because this plan also fails to provide low cost housing for seniors. It then removes the protection the current master plan provides to protect over 6000 acres of land from mobile home park development.
The previous plan protected all land in the newly described Agricultural and Rural Estate properties from mobile home park development. This new plan now allows mobile home park development in the rural estate properties, many of which surround the Village of Goodrich.
Don’t count on your township board members to stop their plan, as every one of them except Shirley Jones voted to let the planning commission make the final decision on this plan.
Attend the meeting on Wednesday. Tell them their plans to destroy our schools and home values will not be tolerated. Tell them this plan needs to provide for seniors, not mobile home park developers.
Tell the township board members that if this plan is approved, a recall of the township board members who voted to shirk their responsibilities to vote on the plan and who refused to change the leadership of the planning commission will be our only remedy.
Susan A. Arnold
Atlas Township