Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor
Springfield Republican
Sunday, March 2, 2008

Longhill Street Needs Affordable Housing

At a recent Forest Park Civic Association meeting, there was discussion regarding potential plans for a $15 million to $20 million rehabilitation by the Winn Companies of Boston of the now-closed Longhill Gardens condominium complex.

While it was accurately stated that some members of the civic association raised questions about the "return" of crimes and violence to that area, what was not reflected was the position of many, many other members who spoke in enthusiastic favor of the project.

Here we have an opportunity for the neighborhood to have a responsible stakeholder instead of what we have been suffering from for the past several years.

It is worth restating that CitiBank holds a $6.2 million mortgage on this property, and there is no requirement that any developer come before the civic association to have its plans approved. It is a sale of property from a private owner/mortgage holder to another private entity.

It is further worth noting that Concerned Citizens for Springfield, a nonprofit volunteer organization working for the betterment of the Forest Park neighborhood, has invested huge amounts of resources, including time and money, to this challenging property over the past six years.

Did anyone notice that the previous two owners and present owner of Longhill Gardens did not even bother to come to the neighborhood association to tell us of their plans? If anyone did notice this, perhaps you would have been as outraged as we were at the scandalous treatment of the residents and the total disregard for the most minimal standard of community responsibility.

PATRICIA B. TRIGGS
President
Concerned Citizens
for Springfield