Encroaches, frays and detracts

A flourishing business district should not, and need not, be in conflict with the inviting and congenial, indeed, serene character of the residential areas in the Village of Warwick.
For example, outdoor music at Railroad Green, within the downtown business district, enhances community ties and the quality of life in the village.
Outdoor music with a drinking establishment at 16 Elm St. encroaches on the residential district, frays community ties and detracts from the quality of life in the Village.
If you peer down the entrance to the lot at 16 Elm St., don’t be fooled into assuming that the chain link fence is the property line. The site of the proposed bar is as tight as the flawed zoning law allows along the neighborhood's true property line.
Legal though it is, that elevation is so appallingly close to the homes along the perimeter that it is not outside the realm of possibility that someone who had too much to drink might seek “relief” along that line before stumbling to his car, or worse, wandering into what is left of someone's back yard in the wee hours after the 1 a.m. closing time.
The charming homes nestled along West Street, Van Buren, Howe, Division, John, Factory, North, Cottage, McEwen, Wheeler, Welling , Orchard, Hamilton are in jeopardy of becoming part of an unrecognizable and run down neighborhood.
The houses along a main entrance route into our village will become deteriorating eyesores as the heartbroken homeowners sell to the lowest bidders in an attempt to escape to the warmth and comfort of another, more welcoming community. That is, if they can still afford it.
That kind of decay is contagious.
I urge the Village Planning Board, the village and the developers to think clearly about the consequences of moving forward with this ill-conceived project.
To quote previous writer: "Just because you can does not mean you should."
Sincerely,
Bernice Yeaw Mulch
Warwick