DALTON: Reasons against recall

I and my fellow residents of the city of Dalton Gardens are being asked on March 12 to vote on whether to recall our mayor and entire city council. Removing our duly elected mayor and council will not “save” Dalton Gardens. It will instead place our future in the hands of an outside authority (the Governor), who will appoint their replacements.

We are being told that if we do not vote for the recall Dalton will see “hundreds of acres” developed and the city will become “an urban zone, with sidewalks and curbs and higher density development.” A sewer system in the residential area will follow.

None of this is true. The city’s compromise settlement of a lawsuit that allows the building of four homes on one particular 5-acre parcel (the so-called “Streeter parcel”) made no change to the city’s 1-acre and 110 foot of frontage building requirements, which are enshrined in its comprehensive plan. Whatever are the true motives of those pushing for the recall, the reasons being given to support it are baseless.

If the recall succeeds the residents of Dalton Gardens will have absolutely no control over the selection of the city’s next mayor and council. We will have bought a pig in a poke. I, for one, would rather we choose our leaders the old-fashioned way, at the ballot box.

ALAN WASSERMAN

Dalton Gardens

Editor’s note: Mr. Wasserman is chair of the Dalton Gardens Planning and Zoning Commission.