We’ve heard a lot recently in the Redmond Reporter about the proposed developments at Emerald Heights. What’s been missing, until recently, from the back-and-forth conversation is the voice of Emerald Heights’ residents.

I have lived at Emerald Heights for seven years and have been a director on the Emerald Heights’ Board for six of those years. This is my home. This is my neighborhood. I care deeply about my fellow neighbors and our residents.

Some of our neighbors have complained that the proposed developments at Emerald Heights would change their views and remove trees that they enjoy. They’ve made false claims about promises kept and promises broken by the management of Emerald Heights. They’ve tried to drive a wedge between the residents and management of Emerald Heights. They’ve placed their interests in keeping an unchanged view of trees ahead of dignity and good health care and quality of life for Emerald Heights’ residents.

Senior citizens are among the most at-risk group in our country. We only wish to spend our remaining years in good health and good spirits. We want assurances that our future health-care needs will be met in a setting that allows us to maintain our friendships, our greatest level of independence and our dignity.

The proposed developments at Emerald Heights will bring much needed and overdue additional health care to all of us who live here and enhance our quality of life. The management of Emerald Heights has listened as our neighbors have spoken. They’ve worked with the city to incorporate comments from the Abbey Road’s neighbors, held neighborhood meetings, offered tours of our campus and are about to launch a neighborhood collaboration committee.

The proposed Emerald Heights development plans, as they have been refined to incorporate neighborhood interests, represent a high level of sensitivity to the balance between meeting the needs of our residents and maintaining the character of our neighborhood. They go above and beyond what’s required by the City of Redmond Planning Department.

In closing, I ask my neighbors to consider what’s more important, a few trees, or, quality health care and dignity for those of us who are living in our final chapter?

Gordon Lindblom

Redmond