Please help us stop the insanity! Oak Harbor’s proposed plan to pave over the 377 acre Fakkema farmland with a housing development is nothing short of an arrogant and ignorant assault on our environment.

There is indisputable evidence, recently submitted to the Island County Planning Commission, that this development will irreparably harm the wetlands, watershed areas and Swan Lake bird sanctuary. What an abominable legacy we’d leave future islanders.

One doesn’t need a degree in professional urban planning to see the harm that’s already been inflicted by the city’s ongoing housing developments. Just drive past the golf course and Crosby and Heller streets, and witness for yourself the clear-cutting that’s already been undertaken. Likewise degrees in zoology or biology aren’t necessary to see that more and more of our wildlife are being driven into open and residential areas from their once safe and natural refuges.

Lastly, please open your eyes and see the existing and ongoing traffic congestion in the city and then envision a vehicle or multiple vehicles for each of the 1,028 homes to be developed on the Fakkema farmland.

The Fakkema family has been farming this acreage for many years. Why can’t it remain prime agricultural acreage and be sold as such for the benefit of our environment and residents?

Please take the time to write or voice your opposition to this travesty to the Island County Planning Commission before it’s too late.

Richard and

Carolyn Bischoff

Oak Harbor