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Residents press council on homelessness, lighting, development and public safety during public comment
Summary
During a lengthy public-comment session, residents pitched tiny-home concepts for homelessness, urged the city to halt 5,000-K streetlights in neighborhoods, complained that some development processes ignore community feedback, and described rising violence in London Oaks.
Several residents used the non-agenda public-comment period June 9 to raise a range of community concerns and proposals.
Homelessness and tiny-house proposal: James Thompson said his nonprofit and design firm have developed "boxable" tiny-home designs intended to provide private, gated living for people experiencing homelessness. He described site needs (about 3.5 acres for a community), security and storage concepts, and said the project is engineered and vendor-ready but lacks funding and municipal buy-in.
Street lighting: John Hansen, a licensed professional engineer, urged the city to stop Dominion from installing 5,000-Kelvin (daylight) fixtures in residential areas, arguing that such lights are appropriate only for highways and high-security sites and can disturb wildlife and sleep. "That type of light is harmful to animals... and if people have their windows open it would affect their sleep patterns as well," Hansen said; he asked staff to pursue further contact with Dominion.
Development and community feedback: Alexandra Westfall, representing the West Haven Civic League, said residents feel their concerns about neighborhood scale, density and land-sale transparency have not been heeded in recent BCA (Board of Zoning Appeals/Commission) processes and asked what metric would move the needle to change outcomes.
Public safety and neighborhood violence: Shirley Pedford Cherry, a London Oaks resident and retired teacher, described multiple shootings and urged council to convene with residents and property managers to develop enforcement and safety strategies; she asked the city to treat recurring violence with the urgency applied to other problem properties.
Other speakers raised venue-management (pavilion vendor operator) and parking/economic-impact questions; Tony Goodwin asked that parking-rate adjustments be informed by an economic impact study and suggested operational fixes to recover spaces from oversized bus stops.
Council responses were largely to acknowledge receipt of the concerns and ask staff to follow up; Mr. Carter (city manager) and police leadership were cited as participating in recent outreach in at least one violent-incident neighborhood. No formal council action was taken directly from the public-comment period at the meeting’s close.
Provenance: public comment sequence begins at SEG 1006 and continues through SEG 1919.
