A patient earful of two previous joint Bristol Planning Board and Bristol Historic District Commission public hearings at Colt School of the vulcanized chalk-box plan Jim Roiter has for snaking his Belvedere condo property along Thames and staking claim to the State Street corner is just about enough to loosen and dislodge years of waxen buildup.

Is it clear what the discussion is about?

A flat-fitted Diamond matchbox impregnated with a pizza parlor, a car stall multiplier, 20 small to double-small “gaul” rental units, and future prospective matchstick catalysts to energize the (accused) woebegone restaurant and retail of Bristol’s downtown.

The counsels debated, expert witnesses floated objections, and the public demurred. But, wait … in Act III (June 21), so what!

The three ‘decision-maker’ planning board members apparently had their votes locked before any of the meetings began. Whatever happened to “substantial changes” in the design, they had assertively requested?

A queasy apology for asking, then, at the end, all the planning board chairman wanted answers to, from Jim Roiter, was: Do you live in Bristol? How long will construction completion take? And, are you ‘all set’ with money?

Not as simple (or confusing) as running meeting protocol with the Seven Dwarfs, but simple just the same.

Let others ponder on where the charm and character of a small New England town ran off the road, this board’s single man majority flattened the pedal — full speed ahead.

What’s become equally perplexing was how, after a couple of “long hearings,” any HDC member cold show a straight face while backing out of the ugly flat plan to advance a motion to resurrect the gables. But, sure enough. Never mind height variance, scaling and massing, congruent proportion with the streetscape — the lexicon and touchstones of a viably connected historic district commission, or was it costume night?

Never mind, just bring back The Seven Gables! Or was it five? Oh, never mind. Who’s counting?

We’ve just gone to the movies. It was a comedy.

Ronan Hernon

91 Constitution St., Bristol