To The Eagle:

Regarding last week’s article about “Planned development travels bumpy road,” Bill Coons bought two parcels of property to provide eight low-income tiny homes around our neighborhood. He was going to do this without letting the surrounding neighbors know what his intentions were. The neighbor who sold Coons the property had no idea he was going to do this until afterwards and wished he’d never sold it to him. Coons’ intentions may sound good but there is another side and more to this story.

Coons’ comments “It’s amazing how neighbors think they have the right to dictate what other people do with their property” and “I think it’s a fundamental human right to deserve a clean, dry, place to live for people without a lot of income, we’re going to figure it out for those folks.” We are not thoughtless uncaring neighbors, we don’t object to low-income/affordable housing, but this is not the place for it. If you’d like to know where he plans to build it, you are welcome to drive out and take a look at the property. Then you’ll know why we complain. There’s no main road that will lead to it, only a single lane gravel driveway and he expects to take a chunk off the neighbors’ property to widen the driveway without their approval. In fact, I think a better place to have his project done would be the eight acres across from the Chevron station, not in a quiet rural residential area such as ours.

If it hadn’t been for the letters that we received from the Wahkiakum County Bldg. and Planning Dept., we would’ve never known about Bill Coons’ project. If Bill Coons wants to do good for those in need of low-income/affordable housing, why doesn’t he consider developing that kind of housing on his property on the island?

Toni Below

Cathlamet