This all reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode, “How to Serve Man”. If we continue to choose the privilege of exclusion, our investment in “age-friendly Northfield” will be moot. We must welcome realistically located affordable housing to caregivers who do not all fit a 1950’s picket fence archetype.

The privileged aggression reveals to me a lack of concern for community and the care of our vulnerable. I’m not as fortunate as the folks, who don’t want extra traffic in their neighborhoods. Someone please tell them the world and commutes have changed dramatically.

It is frivolous study to appease an unproven voice of less than 10%, who have printed and distributed rambling fliers, despite their claims of concern for the environment and threaten to reduce the credibility of our proven environmentalists. This bad policy all risks our future elder safety, limits the diversity of our school systems and opens a Pandora’s box of bully tactics on our farmers’ planning for their futures.

Please vote YES for the completion of an EAW for the Kraewood development area. Once you choose to destroy natural habitat, you cannot change your mind later and somehow restore it. It's gone. I suspect that the Rusty Patch Bumblebee is just the obvious sign that Northfield has a unique natural area that deserves to be treated with care and respect. I would urge you also to respect the voices of the 841 individuals who signed the petition supporting this EAW. We live here --we are trying to preserve health and spiritual well-being for all of us.

I encourage the Northfield City Council to vote for the petition for an EAW for the Kraewood Development involving 650 signatures from invested local citizens and the impact of cost/benefit related to our Climate Action Program. The outcome would promote clearer guidelines for development of the property and effects on the surrounding area. As Joni Mitchell wrote in the lyrics for Yellow Taxi ‘Pave paradise and put up a parking lot’.

I urge you to vote to support the petition for an EAW of the Paulson property tied to the Kraewood Development. We know the federally endangered rusty patched bumblebee is on 3 sides of this property, and that some of the forest trees on the property can be good nesting sites for these bees. An independent party involved with the EAW would lend legitimacy to the EAW outcome so that affordable housing could be built in a way that protects bee habitat- should the EAW indicate the needs for this. The EAW would provide Northfield with the knowledge to balance housing and bee needs well.

We are fortunate to have a healthy population of Rusty Patched Bumblebees living in our neighborhood. It would be tragic if this population was negatively impacted due to the current proposed development. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service website as of August 2021, "Recovery actions include preventing loss of existing populations... While habitat availability is not the primary limiting factor for the species, habitat restoration and enhancement will help rusty patched bumble bee populations..." See more at https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/Final%20Recovery%20Plan%20_Rusty%20Patched%20Bumble%20Bee_2021.pdf

An EAW would ensure that development of the property includes a viable plan to maintain this population of a federally endangered species. Once it is gone, it will be gone. What will your legacy be?

I urge you to support the completion of an Environmental Assessment Worksheet for the Paulson Property development. We have a chance, at this point in the process, to make sure we are doing the right thing as it relates to the environmental impact of the preposed development. To not take this chance would be unwise. Approving the EWA helps ensure that the environment is protected; rejecting the completion of the EWA opens you up to second guessing as the development process proceeds. I don't see that completing an EWA costs the city anything. It does, however, help insure that you have all the information you need to make a sound decision about the proposed development.

I urge the City Council to DENY the petition for an Environmental Assessment Worksheet. The material basis for this denial is found in the citation from the US Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the Rusty Patched Bumblebee:

The best scientific data available indicate that the present or threatened destruction, modification or
curtailment of the rusty patched bumble bee’s habitat or range is not the primary
threat to the species. Because habitat for the rusty patched bumble bee is not the
key limiting factor, and because the bee is considered to be flexible with regard to
its habitat use for foraging, nesting and overwintering, the availability of habitat
does not limit the conservation of the rusty patched bumble bee now, nor will it in
the future.

USFWS is the federal agency charged with administering the Endangered Species Act. The findings of this agency provide sufficient authority to reject the petition.