On September 11, the Los Gatan ran a front-page story with the headline – “Swenson reduces
unit count by 262 for formal ‘Residence at Newtown’ application”. The article went on to claim
the changes were “monumental” and included lopping off more than 50 feet of height from a
planned tower complex from their original SB 330 application. Below is a picture of the residence that was never applied for.
The story included renderings which were labeled “original design concept – 12 stories and 500
units” which showed a massive development. And even stated that on June 14 the firm
voluntarily met with a seven-person gathering of neighbors from the surrounding subdivision to
discuss the project.
All of this was designed to give the reader the impression the developer voluntarily made these
changes from their original SB330 development application submitted on March 5, 2024.
Sadly, this is fake news.
The real news, which was not reported, was Swenson’s preliminary SB 330 application, filed on
March 5, 2024 and deemed submitted by the Town on March 19, 2024, was identical to the final
application filed on August 30 th .
There was No lopping off 50 feet in height – NO 262 reduction in housing units – and certainly
NO changes to accommodate the concerns of surrounding residents. This article was pure PR
spin written to curry favor with the developers.
The ”original design concept” apparently was a “concept” dreamed up to create the impression
the developer was sensitive to the surrounding residence’s concerns. This “concept” was never
a serious development proposal the developers planned to build, and certainly was never
submitted in a SB 330 application to the Town. This was pure showmanship.
And as far as that meeting of 7 people to get community input – there were only 5 residents. The
other 2 were Swenson Development staff. That can hardly be considered a “neighborhood
meeting to gather feedback.”
We have long believed the Los Gatan is NOT interested in being a news organization dedicated
to factual and unbiased reporting. Rather the paper is a spin machine for politicians and
organizations they want to curry favor. There are just too many instances like the Newtown
development story, where unbiased and factual reporting is replaced by biased and false
reporting. The Town deserves much better.
Lastly, we contacted the Los Gatan and requested they retract this story because it was fake
news. They declined.
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