Hometown is a shell of its former self

To the editor: I grew up in a town much like Warwick. When I moved there, the population was 5,000: when I left for college 12 years later, the population was 250,000. Now, ten years later, it has doubled. I don’t recognize my hometown nor anyone within it. I moved to Warwick because Warwick has escaped surburbanization so far, and I assumed that it was purposeful. My hometown is a shell of its former self. Where there were once trees, fields, and farms, there are now subdivisions, shopping centers, and more shopping centers. The schools became so overcrowded that safety became a main concern and education an afterthought. I hear people say, “Warwick will never become Middletown or Chester;” and I smirk at the naivete. It can happen very easily and before your very eyes. Supervisor Michael Sweeton is proudly taking credit for preserving nearly 2,300 acres of open space. Let’s be honest: four farms (Sweetman, Sayre, Borderlands, and Buckbee) were preserved under State and Federal monies before enactment of PDR, and before Mr. Sweeton ran for supervisor. In fact, they were used as examples of how well PDR can work to save working farms in the 2000 PDR campaign. That reduces the number significantly. And if you take away the number of acres for farms that are still in the approval process or waiting for funds, it is even less. Mr. Sweeton takes credit for saving land, but he conveniently forgets about the outright gift of extra houses his zoning code gives to developers for slapping the label “cluster” on a development. How many acres have been lost in order to reward developers with 250 - 300 bonus houses? How much will they cost us in taxes? And, in those developments, how much land is actually being saved? Or is it principally wetland and rock outcrops? Take a close look at the facts before you vote. Penny Steyer knows the facts and the restitution that this community will have to pay for treating Warwick so carelessly. Don’t let Warwick become another wasteland. Ashley Russo