Dear Friends of North Hatley,

Since presenting the petition last fall I have been following with interest the developments regarding the Laliberté project by reading the Village Info and talking to various people. After recent discussions with Hugh Gwyn and Don Watt I am concerned that the town is moving ahead at its own pace without taking into account the concerns expressed by those of us who signed the petition.

I asked Don to provide me with a summary in writing of the most recent developments. Don’s email to me provides a very good update of the situation and also sounds certain alarm bells. I thought it should be shared with all those who are concerned about the Laliberté project, especially as it may well be that concrete action might need to be taken, including legal action, if we want to ensure the Village does not abuse of its powers and move ahead too quickly on this project.

Click here for the Summary

Best regards and Happy Holidays to all!

Chers amis de North Hatley,
Chères amies de North Hatley,

Ayant présenté la pétition cet automne, je suis avec intérêt les développements du projet Laliberté en parlant aux gens et en lisant l’Info Village.

Après avoir eu certaines discussions récemment avec Don Watt et Hugh Gwyn, je suis préoccupée par les actions du Conseil municipal qui semble agir sans égard aux préoccupations exprimées par ceux et celles qui ont signé la pétition.

J’ai demandé à Don de me mettre par écrit un sommaire des plus récents développements dans ce dossier. Son courriel est une excellente mise à jour que je voudrais partager avec tous ceux qui sont préoccupés par le projet Laliberté. Je me rends compte qu’il est fort possible qu’une action concrète doive être envisagée, peut-être même des mesures légales, si nous voulons nous assurer que le Village n’abuse pas de ses pouvoirs et n’agit pas trop rapidement dans ce projet.

Mes meilleurs vœux pour le temps de fêtes!

Cliquez ici pour le Sommaire

This comes to us through Tom Wilcox:

There’s a new approach to preventing development projects from harming the environment that succeeds 90% of the time at a fraction of the cost of the conventional strategy.  This better way, known as Equitable Solutions, is described in the latest article posted to the CEDS news service: cedsnews.com

 With the conventional strategy citizens hire an attorney to kill a project.  Unfortunately this strategy is expensive, which greatly limits its use, and only succeeds 5% to 10% of the time vs. 90% for Equitable Solutions.  Through the Equitable Solutions approach citizens learn how to identify ways of modifying a project to resolve their concerns while allowing the applicant to achieve their goals.  Perhaps not so surprisingly, this is relatively easy to achieve since most projects are fundamentally sound.  Citizens then use the applicant’s desire to maintain a good public image as a way of convincing them to negotiate in good faith.  For those projects so poorly designed that impacts cannot be reduced to a reasonable level, Smart Legal Strategies gives citizens a much better chance of blocking a key permit or other approval.

I would deeply appreciate it if you would urge folks to check out the article and try Equitable Solutions first when they request your help with a development controversy or some other project posing a threat to the environment.  They could also contact me at 410-654-3021 or [email protected].  Finally, the article explains how we can hold an Equitable Solutions workshop in your area. 

 Richard D. Klein
Community & Environmental Defense Services
811 Crystal Palace Court
Owings Mills, Maryland  21117
410-654-3021
Main CEDS Website: ceds.org
CEDS News Service: cedsnews.com