At the 25 June 2026 meeting of the Lyme Planning Board, I asked about the status of the Housing Survey. When the Board affirmed their decision not to review it, I read this statement:
To the members of the Lyme Planning Board,
I am profoundly disappointed by the behavior of this Board.
At the December 11, 2025 meeting, I felt demeaned and insulted by the Board’s statements that publicly expressing my own thoughts about the Housing Survey was improper or “tainted” the survey results in some way. Any implications that I had handled the data improperly were defamatory.
I have spoken to several other residents of Lyme who were present or watched the video. They uniformly expressed that they were appalled by the Board’s behavior.
Let me talk about the time course: In Fall 2025, the Board designed a survey to gauge the Town’s opinions about housing options. [Another member] and I volunteered to create paper and electronic versions of the questions.
The Board carefully checked both formats to be sure they were exactly as desired, and released the survey in November 2025.
On December 2, 2025, we sent a summary of the responses to the Planning Board Chair and Administrator prior to the December 4 meeting that was called specifically to review the results of the survey.
Instead, that meeting was abruptly cancelled – there was no Board consultation or vote. In fact, the Board immediately reached out to Town Counsel – again without any vote.
The next week was the December 11 meeting where the insulting and demeaning behavior occurred. As a topper, the Board voted not to review the results of the Housing Survey, ignoring the careful opinions expressed by 342 residents of Lyme.
The plain and unmistakable appearance is that the Board “did not like” those opinions, and decided to scapegoat me.
If this is the way this Board wishes to treat its volunteer members, then Mr. Chair, I no longer wish to be associated with this board, and hereby resign.
Rich Brown
- My blog post with my answers for the Housing Survey: https://richb-lyme.com/how-im-answering/
- Video of the December 11, 2025 Planning Board meeting: https://youtu.be/Ba2vjdqM1DU?t=4968
- Housing Survey Results – published on the Lyme Gazette: https://lymegazette.com/LymeHousingSurvey2025/
Feel free to share this post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or email. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own, and not those of any public body, such as the Budget Committee or Trustees of the Trust Funds where I volunteer. I would be interested to hear your thoughts – you can reach me at richb.lyme@gmail.com.