Fittingly surrounded by the scenic hills and open ranges of San
Juan Bautista, a group of community visionaries will meet Wednesday
for a second round of discussions on the future of land use in the
county.
A collection of residents on both sides of the controversy over
future development in San Benito County will take part in the 9
a.m. meeting at the St. Francis Retreat. The issue has largely
divided a community that has been in rapid growth mode for the past
two decades.
Fittingly surrounded by the scenic hills and open ranges of San Juan Bautista, a group of community visionaries will meet Wednesday for a second round of discussions on the future of land use in the county.
A collection of residents on both sides of the controversy over future development in San Benito County will take part in the 9 a.m. meeting at the St. Francis Retreat. The issue has largely divided a community that has been in rapid growth mode for the past two decades.
The purpose of the meeting, a follow-up to a similar two-day workshop in July, is to pursue a compromise on the heated issue. Communitywide dissension about future development most recently stems from placement of the San Benito County Slow-Growth Control initiative on the March 7 election ballot.
“There is a veritable Grand Canyon running between (the two sides),” said San Juan Bautista rancher Joe Morris, who organized the workshops with his wife, Julie. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t be bridged.”
The measure stands to highly restrict growth within San Benito County by changing the local zoning ordinance to limit landowners’ ability to develop their properties.
The county Board of Supervisors initially approved the initiative April 1, a decision subsequently overturned by a signature campaign that placed the ordinance on the election ballot.
The Farmers and Citizens to Protect our Agricultural Heritage, a grassroots organization that opposed the Board’s original 4-1 vote, conducted that drive. Several of its members were at the July meetings and plan to attend Wednesday’s as well.
Anthony Botelho, owner of B&P Packing and several orchards in town, opposes the growth control initiative and called its potential approval “a dark cloud over the county.” Though the first workshop eased tensions, he said.
“The best thing (about the last workshop) was that everyone was reasonable,” Botelho said. “It showed that given the right circumstances and the right forum, we can sit down together and talk to each other respectively.”
Members of a group with an opposing view, the Citizens for Responsible Growth – which authored the initiative – will also be there Wednesday. Janet Brians, a Hollister resident who helped draft the 35-page document, heralded the first workshop’s uniting purpose. Though she expressed disappointment that it didn’t succeed in producing a definitive long-term goal.
“It brought the community together to look at where (people) want the community to be in the long run,” Brians said.
Morris called the Growth-Control Initiative a “lightning rod” for the ongoing workshops. There are other issues, he said, that involve an “adversarial” political process. He would like to see more decisions made through consensus building, rather than the traditional political process, he said.
“Whoever has the power wins,” he said. “What I’d like to see happen is that we transform the political process into one of consensus building. Otherwise, we’ll keep repeating the same mistakes again and again.”
Through Wednesday’s meeting, planned to last 5-1/2 hours, Morris expects to get closer to the common ground for which he and others aspire. Everyone, he said, wants a “beautiful, democratic, alive community.”
The first workshop – on a Friday and Saturday – was attended by about 60 community leaders. As of Monday, Morris had received about 30 confirmations for Wednesday’s meeting.
Morris will act as the facilitator, as the hired conflict resolution specialist from the July workshop could not attend.
“It’s useful in getting people to get to know each other, and that’s critical,” Botelho said. “When it comes down to meeting folks face to face and developing a dialogue, it’s a critical part of communicating.”
Erin Musgrave contributed to this report.
