To plan or not to plan?

Willow group aims to educate

January 8, 2006

JODI SNYDER\For the Frontiersman

What will Willow look like in the year 2020?

A group of residents calling themselves &#8220Willow 2020” is asking the community that question in hopes that it will spur a better understanding of the need for a comprehensive plan for the area.

Discussion about developing a plan has been taking place in Willow for years. The latest conversations started in September 2004, at a community development committee meeting. The committee decided to send out a survey in order to register community attitudes. It took its idea to the borough and asked for assistance.

Borough staff helped the group draft a survey, and then paid to mail it to Willow property owners. When the results were tallied, 88 percent of those who completed the survey favored organized planning. But only 10 percent of the property owners responded to the survey.

Willow 2020 member Steve Charles said that survey response indicated that the idea should be reintroduced. Last August, a proposal to ask the borough for assistance writing a comprehensive plan was introduced at the Willow Area Community Organization (WACO) monthly meeting, and was defeated.

&#8220But hearing people talk at that meeting,” Charles said, &#8220we realized there were a number of people who didn't know much about a comprehensive plan, what it was, what it could and couldn't do. So we decided to focus on educating those people.”

Calling itself a &#8220citizens education task force,” now more than 80 members strong, Willow 2020 is currently developing an informational brochure explaining why Willow needs to have a plan. Members have spent long hours and donated hundreds of dollars toward the brochure, which should be printed and mailed in the next couple of months.

Pat Madigan is also a member of Willow 2020.

&#8220Our group is not developing a plan,” she said. &#8220It's important that people know that. Our only goal is to get WACO to ask the borough to initiate one. I think if people knew what planning was really about, they would come out and support it.”

Murph O'Brien, director of planning for the borough, said there are currently 27 community councils in the borough, and while some have plans in place, many do not. There are several communities now in the process of writing a plan, including Trapper Creek and the &#8220Y” area, north of Willow.

&#8220The plan is a vision, documenting where the community wants to be in five, 10, 20 years. It outlines the goals and objectives of the community,” O'Brien said.

&#8220Typically, community councils like WACO will make a request of the borough for this type of help. We set aside money for planning studies to assist them. There is a basic framework to follow. The planning commission appoints a planning team. We provide staff support, we hire a consultant to facilitate meetings - basically we provide the mechanism to get the plan written.”

Doyle Holmes is very vocal about his opposition to a comprehensive plan. A former assembly member who lives in Willow, Holmes said he has seen firsthand what it does to a community. &#8220It ends up pitting neighbor against neighbor. The process almost never comes out the way the borough portrays it,” he said.

Steve Charles says one argument against the plan is that everyone will just disagree and nothing will get resolved.

&#8220But if we make these decisions now, it will eliminate arguments down the road,” Charles said.

Holmes says the people of Willow have voted on this issue three times. &#8220In 1999, they voted no on a borough ballot, 2 to 1,” he said. &#8220A few years ago, they voted down a proposal before WACO, 2 to 1. And last year, they voted no again, 2 to 1. These people that are trying to do this, they are not the voice of Willow.”

&#8220Times change,” Charles said. &#8220If it's rejected, that's fine. But we will continue to bring it up. That's how democracy works. We are already starting to see problems as the area develops, and we want a plan in place before real conflicts arise.”

&#8220There is a lot of communication going on,” O'Brien said. &#8220The community is trying to come together and decide on a course of action. If they decide they want a plan, we can provide guidance. But it has to start in the community, from the grass roots up.”

&#8220Willow is one of the last areas up here to have a plan,” Holmes said. &#8220And I say, what's wrong with Willow? It's beautiful here.”

&#8220It's so nice here now,” Pat Madigan said, &#8220but it could so easily turn into something else.”

Willow 2020 plans an information seminar in April to include presentations and panel discussions on transportation, land use, public facilities and recreation. The group then hopes to reintroduce the motion at a WACO meeting later this year.