• No financial commitments regarding security, fire, police, waste stream and removal (people, horses, trash), environmental projections and more if and when needed. (Imagine Tryon BBQ Festival trash and traffic – nine months of the year)

Typically in a muli-year, multi-million dollar agreement I would have expected many terms deleted or significantly modified, and other protections and caveats added. Yes, the developers have made some verbal promises but verbal promises are not binding.

And read about White Oak’s developer Mark Bellissimo in the recent article called “Trouble in Paradise.”  www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2013/03/26/jeremy-jacobs-mark-bellissimo-wellington-florida/

I do not expect any commissioner to have the legal background to “catch” all the issues, but tonight they have the ability to send it back and get more written commitments to protect Polk citizens.

Personally, I apologize for not coming up to speed on this last month when this went before the planning board. But at this date, the only way this will happen tonight is if each of you come out early tonight, sign up to speak (get there and be parked by 5:30 p.m.), and ask questions. Ask them to postpone the vote for another month … we need more time to create a more balanced agreement. Stand up before the commissioners tonight and ask for more commitments from the developers in writing that we can all live with.

Stand up before the commissioners tonight and ask for more commitments from the developers in writing that we can all live with.

– Shannon Carney, Tryon