HomeLettersThere Is No ‘St. George’s Apartment Push’

There Is No ‘St. George’s Apartment Push’

First published in the Sept. 15 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.

Sigh. This letter is in response to the letter to the editor of Sept. 1 titled “Against St. George’s Apartment Push” — and I’m writing it to emphatically state: There is no such thing.
The letter erroneously stated that “the church’s pastor, Amy Pringle, has on three occasions contacted the city with requests to rezone large parts of their properties at Foothill and Commonwealth for large apartment construction.” This is utterly false.
I have indeed contacted the Planning Commission on three different occasions — but only to ask first about the possibility of selling our rectory lot (the house for the priest, on Commonwealth Avenue) and then to be informed about how our property would be rezoned in the city’s latest plans.
When it turned out that the city was in dire need of identifying large properties where, in theory, affordable housing could be built in order to meet the RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) numbers required by the state, we said, “Sure, you can list us.” Because, (we thought), since basically everyone in town knows that no large-scale affordable housing will ever actually be built in LCF, what’s the harm in letting our property be listed as one of the imaginary sites where it could be built, for the sake of submission to the state? So we did the city a favor, and said yes.
This favor should not be, must not be, confused with any real-world proposal or intention to build monstrosities on our land.
We’re still in conversation about what to do with our rectory lot, as well as being engaged in other long-range planning — like every other church in existence, these days. But our church and preschool are happy, healthy, and open for business, as always.
And there is no need, really none at all, to launch an offensive against a proposal we never made.

The Rev. Amy Pringle
Rector, St. George’s Episcopal Church

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