My jaw dropped to the floor after reading Town Commissioner Terry Brown of Ocean Ridge being quoted by Angie Francalancia in the September article, “Growth opponents delighted by court’s rejection of SB 360.” Mr. Brown’s quotes imply that no other Ocean Ridge commissioner opposed high-density building on the barrier islands. You quoted his statement: “I was a strong supporter of the lawsuit, but I couldn’t get any of the other commissioners to go along.”
Along with what? Entering into the lawsuit? Although many residents of Ocean Ridge support and are members of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, our town of approximately 1,600 families does not have the financial resources to participate in the suit on the legal front.
For you to quote Mr. Brown in this unbalanced and vague fashion is to imply that the rest of my Town Commission supports high-density development. This is not true. I have watched them go above and beyond any reasonable expectation of the voting populace to fight high-density development along the coast of Florida.
Since your inaugural paper you have set a high standard for your newspaper. Please don’t lose sight of those standards now. This article is a terrible misstep. Its implications are erroneous in the selected quotes. It allows Mr. Brown to pat himself on the back while implying that Mayor Ken Kaleel and Commissioners Geoffrey Pugh, Betty Bingham and Lynn Allison opposed him in his fight against high-density development.
Shame on you. Your readership deserves better.
Dr. John D. Wootton
Ocean Ridge
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