Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Building a public recreation area bordered on three sides with homes at the end of a narrow residential road is wrong. I am speaking of the proposed developed recreation site at 897 South Bay Haven Road on Gwynn’s Island.

All the neighbors who built or bought their homes on this quiet out-of-the-way road did so without a developed recreation site as a neighbor. The healthy and safe use of the property will be jeopardized by more traffic on this basically single-lane road. Bikers and hikers will be less safe. Strangers driving by might see a target for aggression. Property values will diminish because of increased traffic.

This two-acre location would make a wonderful site for a residential home, a home which would earn real estate tax income for the county whereas a public recreation area will be nothing but a maintenance and upkeep expense. There is high ground on the property well above the flood zone for building a new home.

An accomplished lawyer has told me FEMA requirements can be defeated starting with a strong stand by our Mathews County Supervisors that the site is not going to be a public recreation area and that the best long-term use of the property is residential as the property was originally zoned.

Tom Edwards
South Bay Haven Road
Gwynn, Va.