A Letter Of Support For GDF

TO:  Wellington Village Council

My name is Bob Bushey and I live at 2874 Polo Island Dr., just across from the new Equestrian Village.  Having lived through one season of Dressage activities, my wife and I are all in favor of it continuing.  We never noticed any smell, noise, or dust coming from those activities and we loved watching the horses perform. We bought on this street in 1991 so that we could enjoy the horse sports and were very disappointed to see the Polo Stadium destroyed.  We are now anxious to see the Equestrian Village completed and in full operation.

In my opinion a Dressage Event is about as much of a NON Event as you can have.  Several of my neighbors, whose property directly abuts the show grounds, never even knew a show was going on until I mentioned it to them.  We not only watched it from our street, but we attended on the show grounds. Needless to say we enjoyed it immensely without any complaints or problems.

The only problem I noted was the dangerous situation caused by the closing of the Pierson Road entrance. I witnessed horses actually being ridden down the sidewalk on Southshore to go in the other entrance. This was very frightening and I cant believe that the Village let one family dictate this restriction.  The Pierson Road entrance needs to be open and there needs to be a horse crosswalk from the trail on the South side. 

I've seen a lot of traffic studies floating around.  Did anyone ever think to do an actual study while a show was going on???  I was in and out of the area all of the time and the traffic impact was minimal at best.

My only hope is that the entire Council did their due diligence and attended at least one of the Dressage events.  If you did, I'm sure you will know what I mean by a non event. The exhibitors perform one at a time, there are no big crowds, and it's just slow moving and easy going. So what is the problem??  Or is there a problem other than one family wanting to control traffic in front of their palatial estate?? 

The Equestrian Village will return lots of money to the Village coffers and give it much prestige throughout the Equestrian World.  Will the Jacob's family do that for the Village?? What happens to this parcel if this project isn't approved?  Does it sit barren again? What a waste.

Stop the lawsuits that are sucking up our tax dollars! Do the right thing and approve the Equestrian Village for the good of all of the Wellington residents.

Robert M. Bushey

Lt. Col. USAF retired