It doesn’t get more blunt than Berlin Mayor Gee Williams was Monday night, when he addressed rumors that a quiet deal had been reached between the Carl M. Freeman Companies and the town on the redevelopment of the Bay Club.
“Whoever is saying that doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” Williams said, leaving little for anyone to dig through in the hope of finding some deeper meaning in his words.
He’s right for two reasons, the first of which is because of how the zoning processes work.
Even if Berlin’s elected officials do have opinions on the possibility of converting the golf club into a campground, that would have nothing to do with the developer’s need to obtain a special exception for a campground from the county board of zoning appeals in a public meeting.
In another public meeting, the owner then would have to produce a detailed development plan that would pass muster with the county planning commission. That undoubtedly would include a traffic study.
Note that these are county entities and have nothing to do with the Town of Berlin, which would only become directly involved if the owners wanted the property to be annexed by the town, which it would not necessarily have to do.
The second reason Williams was correct in his assertion is much simpler: If the fix were in, which it clearly is not, any deal would have to be kept secret by the seven people on the county board of zoning appeals, the seven people on the county planning commission and the mayor and council of Berlin, another six people.
Anyone who says 20 people, not to mention the parties associated with the owner, can agree unanimously to conspire on a secret deal and then maintain complete silence about it must have just seen the sun for the first time. Either that, or, as Williams says, they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
“Whoever is saying that doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” Williams said, leaving little for anyone to dig through in the hope of finding some deeper meaning in his words.
He’s right for two reasons, the first of which is because of how the zoning processes work.
Even if Berlin’s elected officials do have opinions on the possibility of converting the golf club into a campground, that would have nothing to do with the developer’s need to obtain a special exception for a campground from the county board of zoning appeals in a public meeting.
In another public meeting, the owner then would have to produce a detailed development plan that would pass muster with the county planning commission. That undoubtedly would include a traffic study.
Note that these are county entities and have nothing to do with the Town of Berlin, which would only become directly involved if the owners wanted the property to be annexed by the town, which it would not necessarily have to do.
The second reason Williams was correct in his assertion is much simpler: If the fix were in, which it clearly is not, any deal would have to be kept secret by the seven people on the county board of zoning appeals, the seven people on the county planning commission and the mayor and council of Berlin, another six people.
Anyone who says 20 people, not to mention the parties associated with the owner, can agree unanimously to conspire on a secret deal and then maintain complete silence about it must have just seen the sun for the first time. Either that, or, as Williams says, they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.