A divisive proposal by Ascendigo

Ascendigo’s land-use change request has been divisive for the community.

Many opposed have donated money, goods, services, or have children and/or loved ones on the spectrum. Some chose Missouri Heights because their own disability required that they relocate to a quiet, non-stimulating area.

Are your clients’ needs more important than the needs of your neighbors who were already established here? Perhaps the reason that you continue to get so much push back is because you continue to choose residential neighborhoods, which are just not compatible with what you are trying to do. This community supported you well before you could afford a $3.9 million piece of land and when $10 million to $13 million build-outs weren’t in the works. You are in jeopardy of permanently fracturing the relationships that have helped you prosper thus far.

The community, your community, has spoken (560 people to date). Your proposed project doesn’t fit with an educational use. Your own history and IRS tax filings show that. Your project would bring a continuously lit parking lot to the backyard of a residential neighborhood, provide unacceptable levels of traffic and noise, disrupt the rural feeling that we all bought homes in Missouri Heights for, and bring a wildcard to the most extreme wildfire-prone area in our county, all without proper egress. Your traffic study and water tests revealed problems.

What do you have to gain? Nothing is worth destroying the good name of your company. You can still come out of this intact, with a community behind you. Your actions speak louder than words. Please open up your heart and return to the community that has supported you since the start. Your clients do deserve a camp, just in the right location, that won’t further divide and fracture our community and interfere with the enjoyment of people’s property.

Natasha Soby

Carbondale