Dear Editor:
It astounds me how there are so many questionable legal as well as moral issues with building at this site. The biggest of which is the very questionable “bee study” done in January for suitable habitat for the Rusty Patched Bumblebee. When is the last time anybody saw bees in January? Let alone identify anything under a foot of snow when this study was done. Common sense would indicate you can’t. This is a significant over-site by our city leaders and now an endangered and vital species will suffer.
To add further insult to injury, the residents of this city, very clearly do not want housing on this site. Yet the City Council has not heard its residents. Not one resident of the dozens that showed up to the Planning Commission Meeting on January 22nd, were there to speak in favor of this plan.
You can imagine how this affects the bats, the bees, the bird migrations, endangered and rare species that make this their home. Now these are further threatened by the environmental impact such widespread stripping and clearing of the land this development brings.
And what about the $20 million from the 3M settlement that is earmarked for Southwest Washington County to purchase and preserve land exactly like this.
Christine Fugate Grams
Cottage Grove
