It’s a time-tested tactic. Over the years, when the ONA has considered updating the Village’s decades-old zoning standards, local realtors spring into action. By funding mailings to nonresident property owners and developers, they work to incite a last-minute surge of votes in opposition. (ONA voting membership is open to all property owners and to all full or part-time residents in Oceanside.) The maneuver often attracts folks who have never attended an ONA meeting and likely will never return, potentially skewing the result with anxious hit-and run votes.This week, however, the realtors took dead aim and missed. In a post card apparently targeted to undeveloped lot owners, local realtor Pam Zielinski warned that the ONA zoning reforms now underway would “impact you personally.” Without offering any details, this ominous “Urgent Call to Action” pressed them to register and vote at the meeting on “April 5.” Had things gone according to plan, the mailing would have hit their mailboxes less than a week before the vote, prompting an anxious and rushed response with no time for these more remote Oceansiders to do their own research.
But things did not go according to plan. As it turns out, the vote is not scheduled until May 18th. As a result, the realtors tipped their hand early, and people noticed.
“The intended timing of this just before the vote is concerning and obvious,” said past ONA President Sharon Brown, a post card recipient who also serves on the zoning committee. “People should ask why the realtors didn’t urge these property owners to become ONA members months ago so they could take part in the public work sessions we have been offering for over a year. Then they could cast informed votes with an understanding of the issues, not react to last minute attempt to play on their fears.”
As things stand, the effort to unnerve these less-engaged Oceansiders may have backfired. In fact, the maneuver may have underestimated the target audience. For example, one out-of-state recipient of the postcard called your friendly editor yesterday to inquire what was going on since he and his wife were currently designing a house to be built on their lot in the Village. When I outlined the substance of the ONA proposals being considered, he responded, “that doesn’t seem so bad” and commented that nothing I had described “scared him.” As I am writing this, another worried landowner just called, and we had a similar conversation. Provided with facts, these property owners were quickly reassured.
Ever the optimist, your friendly editor has even higher hopes. Perhaps with this premature “alert” and more time for reflection, Oceanside’s vacant lot owners might come to realize that their interests and those of the realtors are not necessarily the same. They might even realize that that the best way to protect their investment in Oceanside is to help preserve the livability that drew them here in the first place.
And that’s the view from Oceanside!
jerrykeene@oceansidernews.com