Where does the money go?
The San Benito County Council of Government’s web has a page
about Measure A. It can be located at
www.sanbenitocog.org/MEA_board.html. The report states
”
The Authority has completed all but one of the transportation
projects on the list. The final project is the Highway 25
Bypass.
”
Where does the money go?
The San Benito County Council of Government’s web has a page about Measure A. It can be located at www.sanbenitocog.org/MEA_board.html. The report states “The Authority has completed all but one of the transportation projects on the list. The final project is the Highway 25 Bypass.”
That statement is misleading. There were several tasks in Measure A that were not completed. One was Westside Boulevard Extension, Nash Road to San Benito Street. It is interesting to note that this section of highway is also on the COG Draft Traffic Impact Mitigation Fee update, April 2, 2007, Table 3, Item 11.
Is COG double dipping? Sure seems like it. COG justified the Measure A tax increase and delivered on some, but not all, tasks. Then it uses the omitted projects to justify increasing the Traffic Impact Fee from $17,902 to $23,853 for each new dwelling expected to be constructed in San Benito County.
It seems the County Transit is not the only task within COG that is a black hole for tax dollars and fees.
Marvin L. Jones
Hollister
Gavilan campus site an offensive tax grab
Board trustee and former Judge Tom Breen’s comments regarding the proposed campus site (It’s no longer proposed; it’s a done deal. The vote is only a formality and so is the EIR.) offend me. His choice of one word, a bodily function, and his assumption that it is not necessary to offend are sufficient for no harm to take place are disturbing, particularly since he is a former judge and should know that lack of intent doesn’t free one from responsibility of harm.
The campus site sits on five-acre zoning. The remaining dividend homes property will probably be converted to a higher density, allowing Mr. Oliver and his party to “make” more profit from the development lost to the campus. This will create a leapfrog development of surrounding areas.
Homeowners who purchased their homes with the knowledge of this parcel being for five-acre development are harmed by this transaction. We have lost our privacy, peace and quiet and other values we purchased when the land was in five-acre zoning. We will not be compensated for this. In fact, probably the only way we can be compensated is for us to have our zoning changed to a higher density so we can again purchase land that offers privacy and freedom from proximity to a college campus. We have lost the time and investment we have put into our properties. I noticed not one of the board of trustees located the campus next to their property where they live. The campus will eventually be annexed to the city, and five-acre parcels will become islands within city limits, essentially folding them into the city proper.
This is a tax revenue grab, as the only way the state government can balance its books is to mandate growth to generate revenue, even though the net population of the state is losing legal residents, and only grows through illegal immigration. This is because residents realize they have no representation in government anymore and are voting with their feet and retirement dollars and are fed up with financing bankruptcy.
The trustees say they need to campus to stay ahead of growth, mandated by the state. I see something very wrong with this picture.
I would like to see very concrete plans to mitigate campus impact on my investment with specific mitigations to traffic, parking, parking location away from our development, no night time games on campus fields similar to existing standards at Gavilan, a fee based system for athletic field use, open space for the EXISTING tiger salamander pond recently heavily disced, as well as brush planted on the open space for transient kit fox population and a dead end for Harbern Way with the existing easement removed as well as other items. The sustainable agriculture program should probably be limited to a focus on backyard gardening as farming in the area will no longer be a viable option when the campus is completed as the entire valley floor will be houses to finance the next wave of mandated growth.
Mark Dickson
Hollister
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