For 11 years, San Benito County has been severely limited
economically by a series of growth-control restrictions
– outdated rules that supervisors must eliminate on Tuesday.
For 11 years, San Benito County has been severely limited economically by a series of growth-control restrictions – outdated rules that supervisors must eliminate on Tuesday.
San Benito County leaders in 2000 enacted an “urgency” growth management ordinance – with a slew of hard-line rules – and later passed the Potential Residential Growth Increase (PRGI) section of the county code requiring that any residential project of more than 100 units would require voter approval. They had been responding to San Benito’s standing as one of the fastest-growing counties in the state.
Times, however, have changed dramatically. Economic circumstances reversed course – with stagnant, annual growth rates for the past decade – and the county now sits well behind the curve when it comes to attracting new developers and industry. Eleven years ago, it was understandable to react and address major concerns about the community’s relatively abrupt transformation. Many residents and decision makers feared that San Benito County would lose its rural, small-town heritage.
Their fears were nothing more than that, panic sparked by a minority of the population and some elected leaders controlling the board at the time. In short, they overreacted and overcorrected when establishing the set of laws that stamped San Benito County with an anti-developer, anti-business reputation – one that badly needs elimination and reversal to a point where this area can start gaining ground again.
To a large extent, county officials should allow demand to set the pace of growth, and at least in the short term, they should do everything in their power to enhance the level of demand for building in San Benito County, which needs every economic boost it can get these days. Improved demand, through reasonable growth, is the only way this county will draw larger retailers that rely strictly on population figures in deciding new locations, or new industry that wants to ensure there is adequate housing for employees.
Perhaps most important, the standards within the growth ordinance and PRGI were chosen at discretion. It is impossible to align rigid rules with economic circumstances that are continuously variable by nature. By doing so, you are merely playing with fire.
Especially now, it is supervisors’ duty to remove roadblocks toward prospering. Combined, these two ordinances are the most obscene and unnecessary government-sanctioned barriers standing in the way of advancement.
It is time to stop throwing salt in a wound. It is time to send a message to builders that San Benito County is once again open for business.
