Dear Editor,
Your opinion on the county developing a new general plan while
processing large developments missed the whole point and your
reasoning is flawed. A General Plan is the blueprint for how
development should happen in this, or any community. The document
is the key to where future housing, commercial, and industrial
development should be located.
Supervisor Pat Loe responds to editorial
Dear Editor,
Your opinion on the county developing a new general plan while processing large developments missed the whole point and your reasoning is flawed. A General Plan is the blueprint for how development should happen in this, or any community. The document is the key to where future housing, commercial, and industrial development should be located.
This plan is drafted by the citizens of San Benito County. It is based on their ideas about future community growth. If done right new housing will be distributed in all sections of the community. Services will not be over taxed in any one area.
These plans are very costly – the county will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the New General Plan. So the question I asked and still ask today is: “Why are we developing a New General Plan and spending huge sums of money when we are also processing applications for over 9,000 homes?” If any large development is approved the General Plan will be outdated before being adopted. That would be a true disservice to the public. Why would anyone want to waste their time working on the New General Plan knowing this could happen?
Speaking only about the DMB project, many of the points you made did not reflect the whole picture. Yes, the project will go to the vote of the people, but only after all the approvals have been made by the county. When the vote of the people happened in the beginning of the process I had no problem with allowing any project to move forward. If the people voted for the project, then it was the county’s responsibility to make it work with the General Plan.
The representative for the developer stated that it would take this project an additional two years to comply with the current General Plan. What if that estimate is wrong by six months and the county’s estimate for a new General Plan is wrong by six months. That would mean this project would have to be approved under the new General Plan and all the work done by the developer would be useless. That is a business decision the developer is entitled to make, but it is important that all scenarios be looked at today so no one assumes something incorrectly.
DMB has always maintained this project will be the people’s project, with the community telling them what they want. How better to get that input than through the General Plan process?
Also, your comparison of housing to economic development makes no sense. Just ask anyone living in the City of Hollister how much their sewer bills have increased. Housing does not pay its way, but that is a discussion for another day.
Does your comment that this was a political move facing likely rejection from the start mean you believe the board made its decision before the public was allowed input?
Assuming it was wrong to bring this discussion or any discussion forward for public input is what I believe to be the most disheartening. How can discussing any issue publicly be incorrect? It is not important how the discussion ends, but it is very important we have this and all discussion openly and with public input. In the end, that is what will stop the costly lawsuit.
Pat Loe, Hollister
