In this week's letters column, the Board of Directors of the Eastern Property Owners Association poses a lot of good questions regarding the AvalonBay proposal for St. Paul's. Many of the questions go to the heart of the question about what the development would actually cost the Village, and these are items that need to be understood before residents can form opinions. They need to know the cost of added village services that might need to be provided, as well as "what if" scenarios should the project fail to come to fruition. We hope to hear more information about these specifics in coming weeks.

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One of the things we noticed when re-reading the St. Paul's report again this week was the phrasing of the phrasing of the "Conclusion" statement which said that the AvalonBay proposal should be "presented to the residents for their review, comment and vote." Immediately after the report was presented, though, members of the Board of Trustees noted that legally any vote must be non-binding, since the decision ultimately rests with the Board.

This is correct according to state law, but here in Garden City the village government has always held itself to the higher standard of the Community Agreement when it comes to selecting trustees for the village and school boards. The Community Agreement has allowed all the sections of the village to be represented without the politicking that mars community governments in many other towns. Vital to the working of the agreement are the Property Owners Associations. While they have no legal power in governing the village, they are used often used as a resource by the Boards, who look to them for information and, sometimes, direction.

The POAs plan to run a vote on the AvalonBay proposal in the fall. Hopefully, they will write the resolution to be voted on in very concise, non-ambiguous terms so there can be no debate afterwards about what the people want.

We propose that in addition to that, the POAs also pass resolutions requesting that their trustees abide by the results of the vote and cast their own votes on the Board of Trustees in accordance with the wishes of their constituents. While the trustees wouldn't be legally obligated to honor the vote, we believe they would do the right thing and let the people's will be done.

Meg Morgan Norris

Publisher