Last night it began, but the Planning And Zoning Committee meeting, which started with well over 200 residents packed into the auditorium, went on until close to 2am this morning before votes were finally taken by the Board to determine the fate of the Global Dressage Festival Venue and Series on what has been named The Wellington Equestrian Village. And while Mason Phelps sat most of the night with a smug look on his face, having been responsible over the last weeks of putting out massive amounts of distorted and malicious misinformation used to bring a divide in our community, I’m pretty sure he felt certain that his contingent backing the so-called “Wellington Equestrian Preservation Alliance” would sling enough mud against the WEP partners, especially Mark Bellissimo, that the Board would surely vote to oppose the project and my dream of a “World-Class venue and Series” for the sport of Dressage would be dashed.
It was both nice to see so many people I call friends in the auditorium, even though I could not be sure at the beginning of the evening how they would vote on their card which was filled out either to “support” or “oppose” the project. But then as one after another stood to speak in the open hearing, chanting the same garbage ranging from the noise and smell which would come from putting the barns and a show on the property which just so happens to have alway been both a polo stadium with barns, horses, announcers and lights as well as, many years ago, the site of our hunter/jumper shows for Stadium Jumping. Others from the “Alliance’ pounded away with pronouncements that the project would cause terrible traffic problems and the loss of “green space in the 9000 acre preserve” by placing commercial businesses on the show grounds. While I am all for preserving green space, let’s remember this was always a show grounds of some sort, with barns, stadium seating, offices, and retail businesses on the location. Yet, the members and followers of the “Alliance”, which had also used Phelps Media to spread rumors that this project would bring “Crime, uncertainty, reduced home prices by 20 to 50%, an RV park and a fair grounds”, maintained that changing the laws to allow for such expansion in the “Preserve” would most assuredly be the downfall of Wellington as they know it. And the final part of that sentence is the only part which has any truth to it.
Wellington is at the cross-roads of deciding whether it is fine just as it is, or if positive growth through a World-Class venue for Dressage as well as World-cup jumping qualifiers and other equestrian events that will produce hundreds of jobs and have an enormous positive impact on our local economy is in the best interest of our community. So as the night…and morning….wore on, it was unclear from listening to the many speakers ( I was one of them.) as to how the committee would vote. Finally, around 1;15am, we got that far and I was so gratified that wisdom and truth prevailed over the scare tactics and backward thinking of those opposing the project. Just as in the last meeting of the Preservation Alliance Committee where we had a unanimous decision to support our project, the Planning and Zoning Board voted 5 to 2 in support of each article, recognizing how much Mark Bellissimo and the WEP group has already done to enhance our community and affirming that this project will bring Wellington and the Equestrian sport, Dressage in particular, to new heights never dreamed of before now….other than by me and all my friends and colleagues, that is!
It is almost 8am and I’ve been up writing this post before having to be teacing in an hour. I want to thank everyone who came out last night to support our dream of having the very finest venue for equestrian/Dressage sport in the world and know that, even those againt the idea will one day look at the show grounds with pride for what we have achieved.
Cheers!
RD
