Letters to Editor

August 29, 2013

Now is The Time

The HUD as a part of the Sus-tainable Communities initiative is moving to transform rural American; robbing the suburbs to pay for big city initiatives and failures. As a NOACA board member, I am very concerned.

NEOSCC is one of the biggest threats facing residents of Geauga County. Who is NEOSCC and why are they a threat?

Northeast Ohio Sustainable Com-munities Consortium (NEOSCC) or the “VibrantNEO 2040” initiative is federally funded by the HUD Regional-ism Grant Program and the four Northeast Ohio Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) NOACA, AMATS, SCATS and Eastgate.

The MPOs are overseen by unelected unaccountable bureaucrats and they regularly make decisions that impact Geauga County.

There are many concerns about MPOs aside from NEOSCC. But, The MPOs have formed an alliance with HUD to create a regional plan for 12 Northeast Ohio counties. That regional plan, which is due in the fall of 2013, to be implemented beginning in 2014, will put measures in place to control land use, housing, transportation, food production, consumption patterns, water, energy, education, health care and the role of industry.

The outcomes will be a loss of property rights and many of the freedoms we now enjoy. There will be more low income housing in Geauga County, a regional authority that siphons Geauga County tax dollars to larger metropolitan areas for projects that are for the good of the region. Geauga County will experience land use plans that control how people use their property, define general property uses, determine what transportation is appropriate, and much much more.

As it was said to me in a workshop, The goal is densely populated interconnected communities surrounded by green space. All this managed by unaccountable unelected bureaucrats.

Not possible say you. Ask the folks in Westchester County, New York. Westchester has lost control over its own future.

For more information, read Spreading the Wealth by Stanley Kurtz. This effort is a national effort, which is being conducted across the U.S. The effects to be seen in two to three years. Now is the time to stop it.

What are your elected officials doing? Nothing. Most are asleep and not involved. Others are very involved in helping with this initiative, ignorant about the future impacts.

If this concerns you, then you must get involved. Citizens of Geauga County, you should do the following: Attend a forum by Citizens Forum on NEOSCC and regionalism, that is being held Sept. 14, 1 p.m., at Tri-C University. Reach out to your elected officials and ask them what they know. Ask them to fight for Geauga County rural values. Ask them to fight for you and the freedoms we now enjoy.

Skip Claypool

Chester Township