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COUNCIL EXHIBIT B Melanie Curtis Public Comments / Information #15 From: Pmsbooknut[pmsbooknut@aol.com] Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 12:38 AM To: Melanie Curtis Subject: Emily Program/positive letter to council Dear Mayor White and Orono City council members, I am writing this to encourage you to approve the Emily Program's pplication for a CUP for the former Hill School site. If you think that an IUP would be more appropriate then I would urge ou to go that route even if that means there would be an extra few steps necessary. Please do not deny the Emily Progra the chance to become part of the Orono community. The"reasons" stated publicly for opposing this approval are dising nuous, illogical, and completely unbelievable. The opposition has cited the usual "horrors" of traffic, noise, lights, fire hazards and falling property values in their almost hysterical reaction to this request. These are totally illogical since the former Hill School had more traffic, more people in and out, noisy students and I'm sure the same fire hazards(althougtr I guess there weren't any students doing laundry there). The most obvious contradiction, however, is the existence of!the Minnetonka Art Center just next to the school property. Clearly, the Art Center is a much larger and more visible building with a very large parking lot. The Center has a very large number of people coming and going during the week, over the weekend, in the summer and basically all the time. I am sure they have large deliveries of many supplies. I know t ey have numerous events that even include, gasp, food! I believe the parking lot has lights-the building certainly does. I would venture to say that there are many more people in this building at any one time than will be at the Emily Prog am's location. Do these objectors have nothing against the possible fire hazard posed by oil paints, paint thinner, p per, firing kilns and all the other equipment used at the Center?There may even be some biohazards there!Why don't hese objectors think that a school in their neighborhood (even if it is a private one) lowers their property value ?A lot of people think that schools are objectionable. Why don't these objectors think that a very large (and somewhat unattractive too) building like the Art Center lowers their property values? None of their stated objections makes any sense in this situation. Or are we to think that private school children and chi chi art patrons are just more desirable in a neighborlhood than people with eating disorders? The rest of the"reasons" given are reprehensible, hysterical and just plain embarrassing. I am embarrassed to read the letters in the newspapers. Using terms like"mental illness", suggesting that the patients would be running through the neighborhood, going into homes and possibly injuring children, is juat over the top. I feel like I'm reading about neighborhood integration in the 60's. I really thought that we had pro'pressed form that intolerant era but I guess not. I would, lastly, like to point out that since this building has been a sc ool, then I would guess that for another school to move in they would just need to conform to the current school usag rules. What would the reaction of these people be if a charter/alternative school bought the site? You know, one for EB kids, or chemically dependent kids, or heaven forbid, disabled kids? I can't imagine. But, if that was a scenario, how would the council deal with it? If something like that was to come up, the real reasons for objecting would become clear to eveNone. Discrimination in any form is very ugly. I think the Emily Program will be a good addition to the Orono community and would probably be serving many people from the Wayzata/Orono area. I'd like to stay proud of our community. I wouli like people in the Twin Cities to know that we are a tolerant, accepting, progressive community and not a regressive backwater populated by small minded people who just happen to live in big houses. It is a shame that the big legal guns have been brought out to put pressure on our officials. I know that serving in local government is actually the most difficult service because of situations like this. I strongly urge you all to ignore the ginned up hysteria and emotional outbursts and approve the Emily Program s request. Thank you all for your service to our town. Debbie Lewis 952-473-4691 ( I have no personal agenda here- no relatives with eating disorders no one in the medical community, no one connected with The Emily Program etc. I am just a 23 year long citizen of Oron who is increasingly embarrassed by these news articles and letters in the papers.) I 1