Supervisors should scrap a controversial, restrictive and flawed
Hillside Ordinance passed in the waning days of the prior board’s
tenure, and instead move full speed ahead into a comprehensive
General Plan update for the entire county.
Supervisors should scrap a controversial, restrictive and flawed Hillside Ordinance passed in the waning days of the prior board’s tenure, and instead move full speed ahead into a comprehensive General Plan update for the entire county.
Aside from any claims the current ordinance unfairly restricts growth, the county is operating on an antiquated General Plan that doesn’t consider the sweeping changes San Benito County has undergone over the last few decades. Only two of the General Plan’s eight elements have been updated in the last 10 years, and several haven’t been updated since the early 1980’s. That’s hardly keeping pace with the dynamic changes in our county.
If the new board wants to make meaningful changes in county policy – and there are strong indications that’s the case – what better way to evoke and manage change? A comprehensive overhaul of the entire General Plan will set the course for the future and assure a cohesive plan that operates as a whole cooperatively with its individual elements.
Piece-meal changes are no longer an acceptable way to deal with San Benito County growth. It’s obviously a touchy issue, but a recipe for further community strife is to stay on the current course which promotes patchwork planning that will lead to endless rounds of finger-pointing and political bickering.
A General Plan is a blueprint that guides development, growth, transportation, population centers and even the economy. In crafting that document, supervisors should address hillside and hilltop construction.
The comprehensive update will require considerable effort and community involvement, but the county should draw upon organizations already actively planning for the county’s future, such as Vision San Benito, and seriously consider a balanced General Plan Committee to do a lot of the work. Updating the plan and involving the local community makes sense considering the overwhelming opposition to the growth-control Measure G. Approximately 70 percent of local voters opposed the measure indicating there is some desire by residents to allow for smart, planned growth.
The new board has been in power since January. They were elected as a result of Measure G. Now it’s time for them to embark on a large-scale project with meaningful impact that will go a long way toward shaping the county’s future.
It’s time to draw a road map for San Benito County’s future. That road map isn’t as earth-shattering as peace in the Middle East, but it will create order and peace in our part of the world – and that’s exactly what voters expect from this Board of Supervisors.
