Archive: Opinions

This Holiday Season in Lansing, there was magic in the air - and like all good magic tricks it required a deception. On December 18th - While one hand was distracting us with pie charts of surveys and exhortations on pulling together and ending divisiveness, the other was presenting a plan to carve up Lansing for the mutual benefit of a few - with the help and influence of Cornell’s powerful Cooperative Extension arm and Lansing’s Town Supervisor, Kathy Miller.  The name of the plan is the 'Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan.' I’ll just touch on a couple of the high points:

Lansing’s 40 farm businesses will get the following: 'Change the current RA (Rural Agricultural) Zoning to an Agriculture Zone and eliminate some of the currently allowed uses least compatible with farming activities.' Wow, I’m sure that most of the non-farming residents of North Lansing will find a few things they’ve always done that will no longer be allowed . (And, since it’s a 50 page document, probably more than a few.) Rural Lansing is gone. Special tax treatments, including a proposed 'Town tax abatement.' This could be especially useful when the kids from the all new housing in South Lansing start entering the schools, and doubly so when the new schools need to be built.

In return, the South Lansing developers will get: 'Infill-density development in South Lansing/Town Center' 'Sewer development - South Lansing/Town Center' (This will allow the highest density development possible - and the most profitable. Yes, it’s back on the table.)

And for the thousands of non-farming residents in North Lansing: My pick would be 'USDA Slaughter facility space availability.' Just imagine the stench, flies, and 24hr a day trucks with them as neighbors. And don’t forget - you’ll have taxes to pay for the sewers, taxes to pay for new schools and more students, taxes to pay to make up for the farm tax abatements, taxes to pay for walk-paths in South Lansing, and additional taxes as needed. You’re just a sacrifice that your neighbors are willing to make so they can have a better life for themselves. But, like the Centurion told the galley slaves, 'We’re all in this together.'

Sincerely, Doug Baird
Lansing, NY