The Almond Glen Development

The immediate question before the Town Council was deceptively simple. Should the Town Council approve a zoning change that would allow developers to build a housing tract next to Route 17, the new state highway? Charlotte was involved because four of the five members of the council belonged to her church (in fact, they were on her church board).

Tell me more about when these two men recruited Charlotte

In favor of the development were Louis Walsh (the energetic mayor) and Dr. Hamilton Davis (the respected physician). They believed that growth was the only way to ensure economic prosperity for a town that had been wasting away for the last twenty years. That is why they lobbied the state government to fund Route 17, known locally as "the Pass-through." Charlotte knew that the doctor and the mayor were the people most responsible for her coming to Almond Springs.

Tell me more about Ansel's anger

Opposed to growth were Ansel Richards (a local science teacher who had moved to Almond Springs to escape suburbia) and Morris Marle (the only council member who did not belong to Charlotte's church). They believed that pillaging the environment was an unacceptable way to gain prosperity. Charlotte still remembered Ansel's anger when he first found out about the Almond Glen housing development.

Tell me more about how Laura was appointed.

The swing vote belonged to Laura Webber, the vice-principal of the middle school and Charlotte's closest friend in Almond Springs. Laura was new to the Town Council (having been appointed to replace the late Vic Vargo) and was the first woman council-member in a town that had never known a prominent female leader before Charlotte had arrived.