Much of Sunset Hills is aghast at the literature spewing from the Hunzeker camp.

Mayor John Hunzeker pushed a four-story office complex on the Heimos property that would encompass the baseball field next to it, not simply a “retirement community” as his March 15 letter suggests.

The minutes of the October Planning and Zoning Commission meeting state that Mr. Laskowski of McEagle said there are three areas proposed to be amended in the zoning regulations in order to proceed with a proposed development that would consist of three office/retail buildings and a senior living center along with a park along Eddie & Park. The proposed amendment is concerning maximum height of buildings and would allow a 60-foot structure height instead of the current 35 feet for buildings’ retail uses with office or residential uses on the upper stories. Another proposed amendment is regarding the minimum setback requirements.

Yet Hunzeker called a meeting in December with five aldermen and McEagle still pushing the office complex and there were never any concerns on his part to address the traffic on Eddie and Park, even though his letter states otherwise.

No one knows of a “public policy that supports improvement of the commercial core.” Mike Svoboda never voted on the “commercial core” project Hunzeker was crying about because Hunzeker tabled it before there was a vote. The majority of aldermen were questioning the project because the redevelopment study was flawed and the cost-benefit analysis was exaggerated. Svoboda still does not believe the project should be given $12 million in subsidies based on what was presented.

The insert provided by Hunzeker stating that Svoboda wants to raise taxes is also a bogus statement. Hunzeker forgot that it was his tie-breaking vote that stopped the lowering of taxes at the August Board of Aldermen meeting. In response to a question from Hunzeker, City Attorney Robert C. Jones was quoted in the minutes as saying: “Property owners will pay more money, but the tax rate is not being increased. The city can roll back the tax rate, but the rate needs to be rolled back by the end of the month.”

The vote to set the tax rate was: Alderman Hrastich, nay; Alderman Hardy, nay; Alderman Littlefield, aye; Alderman Svoboda, nay; Alderman Flowers, nay; Alderman Hoffmann, aye; Alderman Gregory, aye; Alderman McGuire, aye; and Mayor Hunzeker, aye.

Hunzeker should be ashamed of himself for forgetting what the truth really is. Voters will know the truth on Election Day.

Kathy Tripp

Sunset Hills