Hurt Comments

My October 6 letter to city council:

Since January, Sonia Hurt has ignored evidence provided by Blaine citizens of official corruption by Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) and Blaine City Council. Indeed, Councilwoman Hurt has gone along with Mayor Steward's corruption every step of the way. Hurt's October Salishan Newsletter comments, pretending to encourage public participation in planning downtown development—after she already approved fast-tracking Central Business District (CBD) zoning amendments for developers--are thus disingenuous. 

By positing the CBD redevelopment choice as between prosperity by allowing height increases versus views that do nothing for commerce, Hurt ignores the fact that she and the rest of the council and commission received several public comments about the harm to commerce and tourism development from privatizing all on-street public parking for condo developers, which she supported. 

Hurt's faux concerns about public participation after the city closed public comment at council meetings in February and then fast-tracked CBD upzoning for condo developers--including Councilman Hill and Gurdeep Bains who engaged in self-dealing with the encouragement of CDS-- shows her Salishan Newsletter comments to be self-serving.

Several citizens asked that the CBD zoning amendments be rescinded due to the unlawful public process that excluded public participation but were repeatedly ignored by the planning commission and city council. The CBD project charter promised two-way communication and a responsive CDS that would facilitate a robust public participation process from start to finish. That was a lie.


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