In regards to the upcoming special election about the swap of city parkland, I admit that I personally won't be directly impacted by how Rooney Valley is developed. While technically the vote only addresses whether a buffer zone can be created between the new Carma development and the existing homes, the precedent set by this vote could impact all of us.

Since future development is inevitable, we need to focus on better land planning that can minimize the adverse impacts of development. This vote may discourage flexibility, innovation and creativity in future land planning.

A land swap allows the community to kill two birds with one stone by creating a buffer zone, providing a wildlife movement corridor, and preserving the existing bike route all while keeping the benefits of the existing park. When you can get a bigger bang for your buck, or in this case, get far more benefits from your existing asset, most people would call that being smart.

On the other hand, if we take a narrow inflexible attitude that Lakewood is stuck with exactly the park boundaries that we have currently, we cut off our nose to spite our face by creating the risk that we will be unable to take advantage of future land deals where the citizens could end up with better parks.

The city charter provides (rightly so) that parkland can't be sold off. This land swap does NOT sell any parkland - there will be 22 acres of parkland without the swap and there will be 22 acres of parkland after the swap. The only difference is the physical boundaries of those 22 acres.

Furthermore, several years ago citizens negotiated a master plan for the eventual development of Rooney Valley that included the proposed buffer zone. It would be wrong to now ignore the will of the people.

Therefore I urge voters to allow city government to become smarter and more responsive to the people by preserving the option of making parkland swaps when it is in the best interests of the people.