The YarrowBay development planned for Black Diamond is complex and many millions of dollars are at stake. What they do doesn’t just affect them, it drastically affects everyone else’s rights nearby. It changes whether we live on a quiet street or a busy street. Whether we can drive to work in 30 minutes or an hour. Whether the elk and wildlife will still visit our back yard. Whether water drains and gets clean, or floods those downstream and pollutes our lake, river and streams.

The incumbent mayor has taken $1,400 from YarrowBay contractors, and now another $900 — the maximum — from the Affordable Housing Council, a lobby arm of the Master Builders Association, and more from realtors and developer consultants. They all want to profit from the old mayor’s blind belief in YarrowBay. This information is all readily available to the public.

Another contributor to the incumbent mayor is city council candidate Bill Roth. His campaign literature tries to soften his message, but he’s a friend of Brian Ross, the head of YarrowBay, LLC. Not to mention his spouse is currently on the city planning commission. The evidence leaves little to show that he wouldn’t go along with whatever YarrowBay says. On Facebook, he endorses going to hear YarrowBay’s sales pitch, and he waves signs and campaigns with a YarrowBay (public relations) employee.

The people of Black Diamond have always been concerned about YarrowBay and for good reason! Many of the citizens have spent hours, months and years doing due diligence research on this excessive development. That depth of involvement does not make them special interests groups, it makes them informed voters. YarrowBay’s plan is riddled with details that add more to their pocket and shift risks and costs to city taxpayers.

We can’t leave our future to those who won’t look at YarrowBay realistically. For City Council, we’re voting for people who have consistently cared for Black Diamond and its residents. We support Erika Morgan, Carol Benson, and Janie Edelman for the city council positions. For mayor, we support Dave Gordon.

Brian and Leslie Weber

Black Diamond