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Last month's letter-of-resignation from the Planning Commission by Terry McCloskey and my accompanying editorial has elicited little response from any- one but the Planning Commission. Here are excerpts from the two letters from Planning Commission members. The first was written by Planning Commission chairman Tom Lynch to Mayor Crepeau: "As Chairman of the Planning Commission, I must say that I share-many of..,,Mr. McCloskey's concerns. However, I believe,this would be a good time;to remind the Planning Commission members and the citizens of Arden Hills that the Plan- ning Commission is not a governing body, but rather a Commission'`to rev +e planning concerns of the City, and make recommendations to the;.Pouncil. "We, the Planning Commission, are an appointed body charged with the zoning and planning aspects of this growing city. We are to look towpr-d good planning principles and zoning. The Council, being an elected body, ma:* concern them- selves with the wishes of the citizens of Arden Hills, while arriving'at their prudent and final decisions. The majority of Council members have served on this Planning Commission in the past, and have experienced =the planning and zoning concerns present today." And this next is from a letter written to me ,by Richard Ericson,. Plannin Commission member: "Three cheers for" planning commission meetings:' when they are discussing the little fence that's goingupnext to me; when it's my pet planning;issue and I want to be heard; when my application for a variance is being resisted and I want them to give me time to argue the rightness of my case; when 50 of my neighbors and I all want to voice our position on the development which is going to change the character of our neighborhood; when the "small detail" is me; and when I want to have the matter.tabled so that I can have another - crack at it --for or against. , ".....The nature of a deliberative body is inherently cumbersome, even -though - all of us would certainly like to find ways to bring efficiency to the process, I am very concerned about this problem, not only because it involves our time, but because it could inhibit citizen participation. However, I've never known of any reticence when citizens really care about an agenda item. Also, there are dangers in moving too many decisions into the administration. Itm for a system which gives a public airing to decisions, even if it -takes time. "And, Terry, you deserve a bit of good natured ribbing. I wish that you would have been at more of our meetings when you were a member. Some that you mis ed weren't so bad. Many of the issues that you and Diane wrote about have .,surely been discussed. We'll keep trying to be more productive in an important activ- ity in which there is never a perfectly satisfactory decision." These excerpts were selected for publication by the Newsletter Publication , Committee who gave approval to print the first letter too. This Committee has also directed me to publicly thank the Planning Commission for all ,their - time and for the thoughtful effort they put into their decisions. The Plan- ning Commission has reassured me that the Planning Commission is doing ,an excellent job. The Human Rights Commission is working to discover just what problems we have in AH in this field, and what can be done to solve them. At their Feb, l meeting (if you get this by then), a realtor will discuss what the housing situation is in AH regarding minorities and low-income. In March, the' topic will be "Blacks in the Community", with the speaker yet to be announced. Other topics will be'covered later in the spring. Do plan on attending some or all of these meetings.