After attending Jackson city council and planning commission meetings, I feel compelled to write this letter.
I am weary of certain individuals voicing their displeasure with the people outside the city limits complaining about decisions made by the city council, claiming that their decisions have no impact on us who are outside the city limits. Consequently, in their opinion, we have no right to complain.
The fact of the matter is their decisions affect everyone in the county to one degree or another. Some cases in point, to name a few, are the decisions being made on the Jackson Hills project, the Wicklow Way development and the western bypass.
We as ranchers cannot absorb the impact of being surrounded by these various projects. Simply stated, the city council has effectively laid the groundwork for putting the Busi family out of business. It appears that pacifying the realtors and developers is all that counts.
We are one of those strange families that still value open space and all that goes with it, fully realizing that therein lies the true attraction of this county. It is not the endless rooftops, fast food joints or the big box stores.
Some future generation with undoubtedly more foresight than the present one will look back in bewilderment and wonder whatever possessed us to destroy the prime farm and ranch lands, especially as they will long since have had to have all of their food imported from foreign countries as a result of our food producing capabilities being destroyed.
Make no mistake, these valuable, agriculturally rich lands are going under the developers' bulldozers at an alarming rate. The city taxpayers, especially those on fixed incomes, had better take notice as the water and sewer rates will undoubtedly soar, which will bring complaints after the fact.
When all the land is gone and we can no longer produce our own food, we'll all realize much too late that you cannot eat money.