ABSTRACT: In The Carmel Pine Cone, October 9, 2009 issue, three Letters to the Editor provide new information regarding Flanders Mansion, namely that a City Committee adopted “one overriding fact” that precluded the Committee from objectively analyzing and evaluating potential pubic uses, city officials have apparently violated the terms of an agreement between the City and CNPS and a group of “neighbors of the park, natives and enlightened newcomers” got the city’s “promise that they would not ever sell these treasures” in 1987. Comments are made on each Letter to the Editor.
• Letter to the Editor, The Carmel Pine Cone, by Pat Sippel:
In describing her “eight years on a city committee which studied possible uses for the Flanders house,” Pat Sippel wrote, as follows: “We worked with one overriding fact: The house is a single-family dwelling in a quiet residential neighborhood located on a winding road. The neighbors have always made it known to the city council that they do not want any public or commercial use of the residence. Do you blame them?”
Comment: Sippel’s statement betrays a mindset which precluded the committee from objectively analyzing and evaluating potential public uses for the Flanders Mansion; and that is, the committee’s assumption that no public use would be acceptable because of their beliefs about the opinions of some Hatton Fields residents. Moreover, since 2000, the City has not appointed members to a committee to study the issue and the mayor has not met and conferred with Flanders Foundation, which formally became a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization in 1999, or any other groups or individuals, to explore public use options for the Flanders Mansion.
• Letter to the Editor by Mary Ann Matthews, Past President of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society:
Mary Ann Matthews wrote that “city officials are known to have asked the Rowntree Garden Committee to agree to move it” (Lester Rowntree Native Plant Garden) and “the Rowntree Garden Committee members voted unanimously to oppose moving the garden and so informed the city.” Moreover, “the terms of the agreement between the city and CNPS state that the garden is to remain a quiet natural retreat, encouraging walk-in visits from local residents and from visitors who park at the Mission.”
Comment: Ergo, city officials apparently have violated the terms of an agreement between the City and CNPS by making requests that the Rowntree Garden Committee agree to move the Native Plant Garden to another location.
• Letter to the Editor by Linda Lachmund Smith:
Linda Lachmund Smith wrote, as follows: “Back in 1987, when faced with another council’s intention to sell Flanders Mansion and adjacent Martin Meadow, a group of us, neighbors of the park, natives and enlightened newcomers, got together a petition and in a week garnered over 600 signatures to save the mansion and the meadow. It was an inspiring grassroots effort, and we got the city’s promise that they would not ever sell these treasures.”
Furthermore, one public use for Flanders Mansion “was to utilize the mansion as a library, heritage museum, natural history study center and small gathering place. It had the support of CSUMB and all the Monterey Peninsula’s living artistic luminaries. This is the use that cries out to be implemented.”
Comment: The Mayor and City Council should honor the “promise” made by the City in 1987 to the group of neighbors of the park that the City would not ever sell Flanders Mansion, et cetera.
(Source: The Carmel Pine Cone, Letters to the Editor, October 9, 2009, 22A and 15IYD)
1 comment:
Mayor Sue McCloud does not honor promises made by other councils. Similarly, she violates the law when it gets in the way of her doing that which she wants to do. In time, future generations of Carmelites will know the extent of the mismanagement and unethical and illegal acts and her central role in all of it. Unhappily, most Carmelites do not know of it all now.
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