In response to a recent letter, how one small farm's request can turn this entire community into one giant commercial location for non-stop events and huge functions is quite the leap!

No surprise when you disagree with something to exaggerate it to its fullest extent to freak people out and scare them. That's not what this is. This started as one family asking for a special use permit to help them keep their farm going. That's all. I have heard that there is actually a state law that forbids events on farms — I am unfamiliar with this law.

My main point is this: We are a small community. The presumption in a small town is that neighbors help neighbors. That is not happening here. Perhaps if the attitude from neighbors and the planning board was more like: how can we help Karla and Tyler Young and their family keep the farm going and support their next generations with the same? Not that their proposal is a terrible idea that will destroy Little Compton. 

What is a better one? How can the planning board and the neighbors help them come up with a better plan? But to immediately shoot their idea down and exaggerate its implications with no alternative solution shows a small group of people who hold more power — elitists.

Bonnie Phinney

Little Compton

Note: The Youngs approached the Little Compton Planning Board to request a special use permit to hold weddings and other events on their property, but while board members determined that all but one of the uses specified in their application comply with the town’s Comprehensive Plan,  weddings do not.

Further, “we do not believe that the establishment of a Special Use Permit that would live with the property comports with the Comprehensive Plan,” according to a letter by board chairman A. Michael Steers sent to Little Compton Town Council president Patrick McHugh in early July.