A Moment of Truth --- Carriage Hills
Letter to Eagan City Council
Jack Conrad
Published January 16, 2006
Dear Mayor Geagan and Council Members Carlson, Fields, Maguire and Tilley,
We have enjoyed collaborating with you in the past and it is my sincere hope that you will prove me wrong in the comments that I am going to make below.
I don't quite agree with the recent Eagan Sun-Current Editorial on Carriage Hills Golf Course. Afterall, a trailblazer is a pioneer, forging out into new territory, ultimately to open up that territory to eventual development. By contrast, I would say that while Carriage Hills can benefit from a set of visionaries, they should be visionaries who have the fortitude to preserve our plans, plans that respect the resources we wish to leave future generations.
From this side of the Council Chamber, citizens see what consistenty looks like a lack of leadership. Week in and week out, we see our elected officials looking to their legal counsel and asking what they can and can't say, and by implication, what they should and shouldn't do. The appearance is that their strings are being completely controlled by their lawyers. What vexes citizens in seeing this picture is that these attorneys are neither elected officials, nor stakeholders in the future of our natural resources. Rather, they are motivated by two simple considerations: the legal fees their firms receive, and the reputations of those firms. Simply put, they wish to be paid handily for their opinions, and they wish to avoid losing. As a result, their current counsel seems to be motivated largely by fear. And this fear appears to be radiated through their clients (you).
Meanwhile, there seems to be an issue of justice that is being completely ignored in this process. Most observers agree that Eagan is in the right here---the vast majority of its citizens, the League of Minnesota Cities and the Met Council, not to mention neighboring Cities like Mendota Heights.
Yet because our legal counsel is afraid of "three unknown judges who may take this matter into their own hands," they want to cut any potential losses, real or perceived. On this the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, one might wonder what the character of this nation might look like if Dr. King acted primarily out of a sense of fear, rather than out of a deep-seated faith in ultimate justice.
Meanwhile, Mendota Heights---which arguably has had less of a leg to stand on than we do concerning the integrity of its Comp Plan---went the distance and remained faithful to its conviction that justice will triumph over fear, and they prevailed. The citizens of Eagan expect no less from its own public servants.
On behalf of hundreds of citizens and "friends" who are not neighbors of the golf course.
---Jack Conrad
