 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
Home Resource Center In the News Home Greenbelt Alliance in the News |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
Greenbelt Alliance In the News August 12, 2007 No such thing as 'no-growth opponents' Marian Conning A recent article told of a meeting that drew "two dozen city and business leaders" pondering the question of whether creating an eighth city would enhance Solano County's chances of attracting new industries and jobs ("Is county ready for future?" The Reporter, Aug. 4). It is an interesting question, one that I would hope the entire community would be consulted about. The story quoted Vacaville Mayor Len Augustine concerning "the litigious nature of no-growth opponents." As I have said before, I have never met a " no-growth opponent" in Solano County. The Orderly Growth Committee is opposed only to rampant housing sprawl in the county's unincorporated areas; the Greenbelt Alliance advocates open space protection, affordable housing choices and good transit; and the Friends of Lagoon Valley oppose only one thing: subdivision development in Lagoon Valley. I challenge Mayor Augustine to show me even one of the "no-growth opponents" to which he refers. The mayor also was quoted as saying that "six or seven people can hold up a development for years" through lawsuits. I suppose that is true, but I hope he is not referring to the Friends of Lagoon Valley. For the record, we have 815 families on our mailing list, 121 active members and volunteers, 36 members of our steering committee, and 247 regular and occasional donors, both families and organizations, who support our work, litigious and otherwise. We continue to believe that a solid majority of this community shares our opposition to subdivision development in Lagoon Valley. Gathering with like-minded people and tossing epithets at those with whom one disagrees is one way of providing political leadership on important issues of growth, housing, land use and jobs creation. Another - and potentially more productive - way would be to gather together persons of varying opinions and encourage open conversation and mutually respectful visioning about a community's future. I have some hope that the County General Plan Citizens' Advisory Committee is taking that approach. I wonder whether some progress could be made on the Lagoon Valley issue if some fair-minded and forward-thinking local leader (the name Richard Rico comes to mind) were to convene a citizens' advisory committee to find some consensus - some common ground - on the future of our beloved Lagoon Valley. ### |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
