Opinion
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- Written by: Frieda Camotta
Under California law, there is no right to develop. It is a privilege. This can be found in case law, specifically, Trent Meredith, Inc. v. City of Oxnard 114 Cal. App. 3d 317 (1981) as well as several other court decisions.
Frieda Camotta is a past District 1 representative on the Lake County Planning Commission. She lives in Hidden Valley Lake.
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- Written by: Jim Comstock
For too long, Supervisor Robey has ignored the needs of the First District. Now, just like the politicians in Sacramento and Washington D.C., Mr. Robey is refusing to take responsibility for his failed record.
Unemployment in Lake County is now approaching 10 percent. What has Mr. Robey done to attract new jobs to South County? In a word, he's done NOTHING.
Many roads in the South County are badly in need of repair but Mr. Robey has been AWOL in fighting for the safety concerns of local residents.
Supervisor Robey says we should "follow the money." Guess what? The big developer money leads right back to Mr. Robey himself. Over the past 12 years, he has taken thousands of dollars from developers – including an all-expenses-paid vacation to Hawaii in January of 2002 that was NEVER reported on his statements of economic interest.
Mr. Robey's hand-picked successor offers another four years of business as usual on the Board of Supervisors. I offer independent leadership that will actively address the concerns of our communities and puts the needs of the South County first.
The people of the South County deserve better than four more years of neglect. Our county government is broken and it's time for a change!
Middletown resident Jim Comstock is running for Robey's District 1 supervisorial seat.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
What do you suppose Mr. Comstock is talking about? I believe he means that the large landowners and developers who are giving thousands of dollars to Mr. Comstock haven’t been able to get everything they want from me and the Board of Supervisors. They feel neglected and ignored, and are betting that they won’t be if Mr. Comstock is in office. All you have to do is look at the reports of who is contributing to Comstock’s campaign and “follow the money.”
Many of these contributors have projects that have been proposed to the county, including residential subdivisions and commercial developments. Others are pushing to have their agricultural land included in the Middletown community boundary as a step towards conversion to residential use in the future.
This type of “good ‘ol boy” politics is as old as the hills, but it's not what we need because when developers and land speculators control our growth policy then we all end up living with the impacts and paying for their cost.
Ed Robey is supervisor for District 1. He is retiring at the end of this year. James Comstock and Susanne La Faver are competing to succeed him.
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- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
We SUPPORT Proposition 1A, which would provide $10 billion in bond funding to jump-start the construction of an 800-mile high speed rail system and to improve existing rail networks, thereby promoting sustainable land use, significantly reducing global warming pollution, and relieving pressure on our overcrowded roads and airports. Although it is very expensive, adding the same capacity to highways and airports would cost at least twice as much, without providing the same benefits.
We SUPPORT Proposition 2, which would set minimum standards for the way farm animals are housed, by requiring that they be given enough room to stand up, turn around, and fully extend their legs or wings. By reducing the density of California's enormous chicken factories, Prop 2 would lessen the intensity of their air and water pollution impacts. It would also help level the playing field between family farms and massive agri-business operations, by requiring the latter to treat their animals according to basic standards of decency.
We OPPOSE Proposition 4. For nearly 40 years, the club has supported open access to family planning services as part of a comprehensive approach to population control. Prop 4 would impose a new obstacle to access by requiring women under 18 to wait 48 hours before obtaining an abortion, and by requiring parental notification or court permission would be likely to increase the number of young women seeking dangerous amateur abortions.
We OPPOSE Proposition 7, which proposes to obtain half of California's electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and looks wonderful at first glance. But it doesn't do enough to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and could actually impede the growth of the renewable energy industry. Lack of a sound funding source means that the 50-percent-renewable goal would be almost impossible to achieve, and the proposition would lock in existing loopholes tying the price of renewable energy to that of natural gas. It would also remove local control over energy policy and thus obstruct efforts by communities to obtain more of their energy needs from renewable sources. Last, provisions "streamlining" the permitting process for renewable power would decrease environmental protections.
We OPPOSE Proposition 10, which would put California on the wrong road to cleaner vehicles. If passed, $5 billion in bond funding would primarily be distributed as rebates to buyers of "clean alternative" vehicles, but the standard for these vehicles is set so low that it would have little if any effect in reducing air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. It could also lead to the construction of environmentally destructive large hydroelectric dams, by defining them all as "renewable" no matter what their impacts. The benefits of this measure would be primarily felt by the natural gas industry, which by any normal standards is neither "renewable" nor "alternative."
Victoria Brandon is chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group.
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