Well, I have not had a chance to write many entries as I have been working too much. Trying to finish up year end financials for the company; taking inventory; and then having a huge homeowner meeting in my community.

The homeowner meeting was about a proposed development going in across from our housing complex. The development is quite large in scope consisting of 1200 condos and town homes and 500,000 square feet of office and retail space.

The developers are very nice and one actually lives in a nicer neighbourhood that this development sits directly next to and portions would actually cross. This leads me to believe they want to do a top-notch job.

I am the president of our HOA and as such have been in contact with the developers and the community. So I am getting feedback from both sides very regularly.

Last night was the big meeting and it was exactly what I had expected. There was a large group of people that showed up to this public meeting espousing their views while not listening to what the developer was proposing. Every time the developer tried to talk these individuals would begin asking another question so the that nothing was actually learned.

The primary concern is that the land is very near a watershed for the entire area. This definitely needs to be protected and preserved for clean drinking water. However, we could not find out what steps would be taken and what the developer would commit to since they were basically not allowed to speak.

I finally had to yell out to everyone that instead of being reactive they should be proactive with the developer to provide concerns and work with them to mitigate those concerns. -- That did stop them from their banter and hopefully provided food for thought.

Now please do not misunderstand - I am all for protecting our environment but with logical sensibility to it. I do not just assume that any development is bad because it disturbs land (if everyone thought that way we would still be living in caves).

What I had truly hoped for was that the residents of my community (and not everyone in attendance was from my community) had the opportunity to get informed, get involved and get interested.

I think instead people got agitated, frustrated and heated because all they got a chance to see and hear was the incessant whining of these wackos (these same wackos go to every development or public hearing issue and espouse the same rhetoric).

So far I like the idea of the new development and hope the developer works with us if they get all their approvals. Right now they are fighting an uphill battle since they have to have land use amendments and rezoning requests fulfilled. They are several years away so we will get lots of opportunity to see what happens.

Anyway, Just My Opion...