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Loeckler resigns from housing commission |
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Friday, 16 October 2009 |
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By ANDREW MARTIN
CHARLESTOWN – Citing issues with the Planning Commission and an overall lack of progress with housing projects, a member of the Affordable Housing Commission has resigned.
Bruce P. Loeckler, a one-time vice chairman and six-year member, sent in his letter of resignation from the Affordable Housing Commission last week.
“I’ve been on the board for six years. I was the vice chairman and we weren’t getting anything done,” he explained in an interview last week. “We’ve been working on some projects for six years [and we’ve] been trying to get something through. Nothing was getting done.”
In particular, Loeckler, both in the interview and his prepared statement, referred to a recent proposal for an affordable housing development behind Town Hall. He explained that the project had been worked on for the last two years. It was inevitably brought to a halt when Narragansett Indian Tribe remains were found on one part of the parcel.
But Loeckler felt the Planning Commission took their concerns too an extreme when the project was presented at a meeting in August.
“Members nit-picked everything from homeowners’ cats that might eat the birds to unacceptable distance to shopping,” he wrote.
The meeting was used as a means for the project’s partners – South County Habitat for Humanity and Washington County Community Development Corp. – to receive feedback from the town before moving forward, according to members of both agencies.
“The reason for it was basically ‘not in my backyard,’” Loeckler said in reference to the Planning Commission trying to “shoot that [project] down.”
He wrote in his statement that the Planning Commission has discouraged many affordable housing projects over the past six years. Planning Commission Chairwoman Ruth Platner said the only project the board brought forward was the Town Hall project. And, she said, the commission asked if a site walk had been done and when that happened, the remains were found.
“I know they’ve been working on it for a long time but because they were not working on it in public, we weren’t able to advise them on things they needed to look for,” Platner said.
She then referred to past occurrences when the two groups had worked together, such as in creating the town’s affordable housing plan. They also collaborated on an ad-hoc committee regarding specific zoning ordinances.
But Loeckler contended that the meetings about the Town Hall project were held in executive session because discussions about land acquisition have to be closed. As is required by state and town law, such discussions can be held in executive session for the best interest of the public.
Loeckler also expressed a frustration with the town’s inability to move forward with affordable housing. He pointed out that state law requires that a municipality must have 10 percent affordable housing – Charlestown, he said, is closer to 2 percent.
“There is nothing affordable here,” he said. “For the working person, there is nothing available in Charlestown and there’s next to no rentals here.”
A carpenter by trade, Loeckler spends some of his free time on the board of directors at the Jonnycake Center in Westerly, where he has volunteered for 29 years. And, unlike in Charlestown, he said, that board gets something done every month to help “those who are hurting.”
Although he is no longer on the Affordable Housing Commission, Loeckler said he will continue attending town meetings. In particular, he plans on speaking out at Planning Commission meetings if he feels compelled – something he said not enough people are doing. |
