28 April 2007

Responding to Delegate Liz Bobo

In her Friday, April 20, 2007 email, Delegate Bobo states:

In sharp contrast to his opponent, Phil has been strong in his support for Mary Kay Sigaty's proposals for a 150 foot height limitation in Columbia. His opponent is on record as favoring unlimited building heights.

Unlimited building heights? In my opinion, that is a pretty dramatic statement. The only problem is, I never said it. Not in public, not in private. I have never written it. I have never text messaged it, I have never IM’ed it. The statement is not mine.

Since Delegate Bobo sent out her pre-election email, she has been quoted in the Columbia Flier as follows:

Bobo said April 24 that she saw Santos' name on a petition from the group Bring Back the Vision, which advocates no height limits on downtown development, and based her comments on that document.

An interesting thing about the petition, it does not mention “unlimited” building heights. What the petition does state is an opposition to the proposed zoning amendments, and also provides supporting arguments as to why the proposed zoning amendments would be detrimental. It is this language that led me put my name on the petition. To come to the conclusion of “unlimited” building heights based on the petition implies that Delegate Liz Bobo erroneously read something into the document that does not exist on the paper.

Moreover, even basic research concerning my position on building height is readily available. As an example, Google the following search terms:

Santos building height

My blog posts on building height comes up as the second term listed. These posts have been on this blog for months, and clearly state my position.

Lastly, has this town become too big for neighborly discussion? I know that Delegate Liz Bobo has my contact information. I received her legislative update via email the other day. If Delegate Liz Bobo wanted to know my position on building height, why not just contact me directly? I believe it would have been quicker and would have provided her with primary source information.

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