By Helene Pohl

I would like to have a chance to reiterate my plea for your planning commission and your board to consider and abide by the thoughtful 229-page 2030 Comprehensive Plan your board under your leadership delivered to your constituents. 

You do remember, I am sure, the long hours we all spent building consensus among the various groups, ironing our differences and uncovering shared values. 

The Plan was part and parcel of a Wisconsin Statute (66.1001 Comprehensive planning) and was partly funded by local taxpayers. I do remember St Lawrence residents grousing at the St Lawrence Township contribution and I am sure you faced the same criticism. I understand that comprehensive plans are not regulatory tools, but guides. They do, however, have a moral stature because they are the product of an engaged citizenry who, normally, would enjoy other pursuits rather than sit at long evening meetings debating the merits of unplanned growth and development.

Having felt hoodwinked by the dismissive way officials had treated the 1978 Comprehensive Plan that I had helped design with the help of the Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, I was terribly reluctant, in 2007, to get in the fray and contribute to the 2030 St Lawrence Comprehensive Planning project, let alone lead it.