Anti-growthers ignore General Plan efforts

A team of professional environmental, housing, and development experts spent years creating the plans for Valley’s Edge, with diverse housing, commercial use, and expansive open space, compliant with every detail of the 2011 General Plan, which established the guidelines for how the land should be developed. VE took 14 years of work. Now complete, the law requires the GP to be changed from “planning” to “implementation.”

This is the “amendment” opponents now reject. Future developers/builders must implement the plan for future homeowners, apartment dwellers, commercial shopping centers, and businesses. That is planned development as required by state law.

Now a small group of selfserving, anti-growth advocates attempting to replace the planning process with last-minute second-guessing of the lengthy process, hoping to insert themselves as the final judge of what is allowed.

The General Plan is the result of thousands of hours of work to address the very concerns now being raised by political activists. The GP was approved by community members and city planners within the mandated, methodical process of guiding the planned development process. Opponents demand affordable housing, but the plan sets aside 10% of all housing for various types of affordable housing opportunities, including for seniors. In 2012, a 3-bedroom 2-bath home on a large lot sold for $255,000. That home cannot be built for less than $400,000 today.

One of the reasons is the added costs these last-minute second-guessers cause, seeking to toss out proper planning because developers make a convenient political foe.

— Doug Guillon, Chico