To the Editor,
I support our current Planning Board members and other town officials who have worked for the last few years in an effort to incorporate changes that would inch us toward an increase in housing units in our town. It's not just Manchester's families that will need additional housing options for children growing up and seniors needing to downsize. We need more supply to lower the cost, and every town and city in the Commonwealth needs to work toward resolving the "housing crisis."
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
In the continuum from "Preserving the character of the town" to "recognizing that changes must happen to solve for new needs," I believe that "common sense" and "focusing on the future" realistically means that we reject NIMBY-ism and make the kinds of changes that increase the number of housing units in town. I was ready to vote for the PB proposals at the fall town meeting before they took them off the table. I hope the PB will bring those matters back to a Town Meeting, obviously improved after so much scrutinizing. And that would be just a start!
Many have slowed the process down for good intentions... thinking we can do better at ensuring real affordable units in the mix. That's good! Many others simply want the town to look exactly the same for the next 50 years and will stall the process any way they can. That's not good—it's selfish as well as unrealistic.
I think the majority want to move forward. They don't put up a lot of signs. But I believe the majority support the goals in the Master Plan along with the efforts of the Planning Board over the last few bumpy years.
Toward that end, on May 16, I am voting for the candidates that seem most open to forward change, not those that seem to put preservation above human needs.
Richard Goutal
Manchester
