The city of Beacon is losing it's beauty and charm through uncontrolled development that is taking away all of our green space and making driving, walking, and bike riding conditions more dangerous. We're losing trees, there are streets all over the city that vehicles can't travel without weaving through parked cars and  crossing over the double yellow line, and there are countless stories about pedestrians and bikers being hit. The people who are supposed to be controlling this don't seem to know that they are able to.

At the last planning board meeting, the chair of the planning board stated on more than one occasion that the planning board does not have the legal authority to say no to to developments that are harming the city. In reality, they have not only the right to say no but the obligation as the board that is supposed to be protecting this city from harmful development. 

At the city council meeting two weeks ago the council, mayor, and city attorney were asked to clarify the legal authority of the planning board. They did not. This spoken request was followed up by three emails, but still no resolution. If nothing is done about this, the city will continue to rubber stamp every proposal that a developer puts in front of them because they believe that they have to. Developers, who pay much more attention to these meetings than most of the public, know this and that's why they have been getting away with so much. 

This is not only harming our city in the ways stated above, it also opens the city up to costly lawsuits from people whose property has been adversely affected  by projects that should never have been approved. 

Please sign below to demand that the city immediately respond to this issue. There are multiple places in our city code that clearly state the authority of the planning board, yet our city's paid consultants seem to be leading them in the opposite direction from their intended purpose. The city of Beacon needs to make sure that the planning board is completely retrained to understand their legal authority and responsibility to the city, and they should not be able to make ANY further decisions on any projects before them until this happens.