To the editor:

In a Nov. 6 article about the Housing Trust Fund, Jeff Golimowski writes that I “see” 20 years of growth simply as “high-end houses filled with high-income people.”

To begin with, this is not what I see or said. I warned this is a real possibility and suggested that we purposefully avoid it. Given costs for land, building permits and potential impact fees, our community should consider ways to maintain broad-based housing opportunities.

Secondly, I noted that annual earnings from the Housing Trust Fund’s $500,000 endowment were not enough to significantly impact affordability issues. Consequently, if the city, its residents and the HTF cannot find regular income, all might be better served by rolling the HTF’s endowment into another entity, such as the Neighborhood Resources Advisory Committee.

I am also uneasy with the statement relating housing starts to the tax base and economic boom. My experience as a city planner shows that housing starts often cost more for services and infrastructure than they add in tax revenues. Lawrence may be an exception, but increased taxes would suggest otherwise.

Finally, as a resident of an older Lawrence neighborhood, I have no problems with growth; it simply reflects our high quality of life. My only concerns are that Lawrence grows sensibly, with opportunities for as many of its residents as possible.

Ed Tato,

Lawrence