To the editor:

Ken Meyer is right to hope someone might buy the Pine’s property for farm purposes instead of industrial (Public Forum, Aug. 2) because it will be Mr. Meyer’s pocketbook that will foot the bill should plans for this huge industrial park go through.

Sure, the first 140-acre phase is situated at the edge of the floodplain. But the other “future” phases of development – hundreds and hundreds of acres – are located in and around a FEMA-designated floodplain surrounded by an aging levee system. If this is the site our city commissioners choose for Lawrence’s new industrial employment center as Jes Santaularia hopes, then the people of Lawrence need to hear a full accounting of the costs – not just the first 140 acres, which are problematic enough. We need to know about the whole nine yards – all 900 acres.

The saying goes, “In for a dime, in for a dollar,” but add six zeroes to the end every time with this development gamble! In studying the prospect of development on the north side of town, one study estimates the cost of infrastructure just to keep flood waters out of residential North Lawrence could total $41 million – and that was the cost two years ago. What might the price tag be now?

To be sure, Mr. Santaularia’s ideas are fluid at this point, his development dreams undergoing the natural ebb and flow of preliminary planning. But through it all, the residents of Lawrence need to ask the rock-solid question: How much will this cost Mr. Meyer and me?

Nancy Thellman,

Lawrence