From: walter deissler <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2023 9:27 AM
To: Cristobal Carrillo <[email protected]> Subject: Fwd: Responses from Visalia Public Cemetery District Expansion Survey Walter Deissler
Architect
559-901-0500
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Domingo Lopez <[email protected]>
Date: April 27, 2023 at 8:44:00 AM PDT
To: [email protected]
Subject: FW: Responses from Visalia Public Cemetery District Expansion Survey
From Gwen
From: Gwen Schrank <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2023 4:40 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Domingo Lopez <[email protected]>; Alexander, Rosalinda <[email protected]>; Brittany Schrank <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Responses from Visalia Public Cemetery District Expansion Survey On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 4:35 PM Gwen Schrank <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Visalia City Council Members: Mayor Brian Poochigian, Brett Taylor, Steve Nelsen, Liz Wynn, and Emmanuel Hernandez Soto. also Visalia Cemetery Leader Domingo Lopez and Rosalinda Alexander My name is Gwen Schrank. I have been a resident of Visalia for 20 years and would like to provide you with some information regarding the upcoming vote to change the zoning for some of the properties located around the Visalia Cemetery.
I would first like to say that I respect the business of taking care of our loved ones' graves who have passed away. Before moving to California in 2003, I owned and lived in a property where my backyard was lined up with one of the cemeteries in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I know and understand what it's like to be the neighbor of a cemetery. The person that we sold our home to bought the home so that she could be close to where her father was buried. I understand the sentimental aspect of the cemetery.
From my understanding the plan for this expansion started back in 2005 before we had the current crisis with homelessness and Covid. We live in a much different time now than we did then.
As a community member, leader, and advocate for helping our community become a place where people are loved, valued, and respected regardless of their life situation. I want to ask you to vote no on rezoning for the expansion.
It doesn't make sense to me for you to vote to spend so much money to create housing and also vote to take away affordable housing in a community that is affected in a huge way with homelessness. The cost of living has gone up so much without any sight of it changing anytime soon.
I am someone who is creating housing for homeless youth aged 18-24 without funding from the city or the county and this would be very disappointing to have the efforts that we are putting into building up the community be cancelled out when there are other options for expanding the cemetery.
I believe there is a way to provide additional time for the current cemetary to remain open and taken care of while also planning and providing space for the future.
I have included a link with 44 survey responses from community members over 18 years of age who would like to share their voice with you regarding the upcoming vote.
Responses from Visalia Public Cemetery District Expansion Project Please copy and paste link below into browser if the link doesn't work https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ASWHi3hwsumnK7dZbE26VIF-ffw9rVzD?usp=share_link I believe that you will all come up with a choice that will work best for the community and the cemetary. All I ask is that you consider the voices of those who have taken the time to share their voices.
Thank you for your time. Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend.
Gwen Schrank