The Free Lance photo on page 8 of the Sept. 4 edition (“Hollister voters push for Urban Growth Boundary”) depicts people from the grass of lawns and pastures making real grass work function. Here shows the people who want to save Hollister.
Sure, Hollister can and should grow—but in a thoughtful way that keeps our town from becoming an ugly sprawl bereft of rivers, streams, apricot trees, cherry trees, lettuces, peppers and onions. Monopoly can’t even be played if all the squares become filled with houses.
These neighbors provide the opposite of recall. Recall destroys. These friends preserve. Folks like these save the beauty of clean air, running creeks, food greenery, animals and hills. For them, replacing these gifts of nature would be criminal.
These folks, shocked by the sprawling growth of houses, intend to make a correction. Hollister, beautifully nested in agriculture and mothered by surrounding hills, provides our homes.
Unlimited housing construction is upsetting this balance of nature and people. Either nature continues or housing construction takes over.
Housing alone is like a cancerous growth of unlimited sucking without infusing nourishment. Finances and money enter by way of spiraling land values. Landowners with visions of wealth sell fertile agricultural land.
Now we have a real problem because this burdensome housing construction alone tempts property owners to sell out. This unbalance destroys our beloved town.
This is the subject of the people in the photo. They plan to circulate a petition to start a process of permitting a legal line called a boundary around Hollister which would rescue us and save greenery, open space, air and water. This is real democracy.
Signing this petition would be a pleasure. Our surrounding cities, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Watsonville and San Jose all have similar plans.
Hopefully this petition will be in time to save us from the sprawl.
Mary Zanger
Hollister
Did your family not develop Pacheco Creek Estates. Multi million dollar homes? Mary you are out of tune with the state mandate. It’s like you’re advocating for more builders remedy. Yes the current general plans passed muster; barely. The city and county are being strictly monitored by HCD. After you got the general plans YOU wanted it’s still not enough. Your guidance is non compliance and that’s not acceptable IMO.