To the editor:

I am writing in regard to the county Planning Commission, County Council and County Executive Steve Stenger.

A development on Tesson Ferry Road, just south of Butler Hill Road, is zoned C-2. A PetroMart, zoned C-8, was built on the site with the use of a conditional-use permit, or CUP. Though area residents opposed it, it was forced on us.

Shortly after that, a Wal-Mart Grocery Store, zoned C-8, wanted to build there. Residents again opposed this development and at a County Council meeting cited many zoning, traffic and safety concerns. The Wal-Mart project, thankfully, was denied.

Now McDonald’s is building on the same property — another C-8 development on C-2 land using a CUP. This time, residents were not allowed to speak on the issue or give opinions at a County Council meeting.

We were told it was passed at a closed-door, private meeting.

Some of us did attend a regular council meeting anyway, but spoke to deaf ears.

Amazingly, a driveway had already been built and two days after the meeting, a divider between northbound and southbound Tesson Ferry Rod was being built, which McDonald’s planned.

The county executive and County Council must think we are idiots. I believe this deal was done before the November election and not released to the public until after the April election. This, to me, is local dirty politics at its best.

Shame on the county executive and council for approving this development without giving the people who are affected by it most their say.