Bella Vista gains more diversity with every passing year. We still have a good percentage of retired folks but also numerous young families. And we have an assortment of everybody in between, with different ages and lifestyles and family compositions.
We have golfers and people who wish the golf courses would go away. We have folks that use the biking and hiking trails and people that are not in favor of the trails. We have people that use the amenities and people that don't. We have thousands of vacant lot owners that have never seen their lots. We have thousands of vacant lot owners that maybe see their lot once every 20 years or so. And we have a small percentage of vacant lot owners who bought the lots to use our amenities.
Putting together an assessment increase plan to satisfy such divergent constituencies is an impossible task. Kudos to Tom and his staff and the POA board for coming up with a plan that does its best to satisfy as many people as possible.
Yes, there are aspects of the plan that do not satisfy everyone. Would I like to tweak some things? Yes. I see two options. One is that we could pick out one part that we do not like and say, "I am voting NO." I cannot live my life in such a negative and suspicious manner.
I choose instead to see that the 2020 Plan is the best that we could have under the circumstances. It allows us to move forward in a positive way. It allows us to continue to bring our amenities out of the 1970s and 1980s and into the current century while looking toward the future. It allows us to keep our property values leaning upward.
Let us choose to work together, respecting our differences, while realizing that we just cannot move forward on 2001 income. We moved to Bella Vista because of the environment, the amenities, the beautiful hills, the affordability and the friendly welcoming people. Let us honor that and vote yes.
Linda Lloyd
Bella Vista
Editorial on 12/11/2019