Restore community review

To the Editor:

As we welcome in our newly elected county supervisors and TUD board members, can we please reestablish community participation in local planning that will have lasting effect on everyone?

The egregious bulldozing through of ill conceived developments along our historic Yosemite and Columbia corridors by outgoing decision makers is a slap in the face to the public and future generations of visitors and residents who will endure an irreparable loss of natural surroundings.

Case in point, the Stone Mill strip mall at the Highway 49 entrance to Columbia is already flattened prior to TUD approval of water hookups in defiance of good faith efforts to make the project beneficial to the community. The public may comment at the Jan. 12 TUD meeting.

This type of development subterfuge is possible because previous supervisors kowtowed to moneyed interests and gutted public participation. Reinstall the public local design and review committees that were axed in favor of a distant pod of well-intentioned but rarely convened few.

Also, consider the catastrophic consequences of drought-starved water systems when these proposed developments commandeer their share of our dwindling water supply and the inevitable next firestorm visits. Empty hydrants, wells and ponds favor nobody.

It is not too late to address the critical problems guaranteed by ill-advised developments. Revisit the General Plan and reconsider the “urban” designations of our neighborhoods. Abandon false promises of instant revenue and inevitable growth.

Let those who must live with the rapacious folly of the few have a fair say and a meaningful place at the table.

Look around, people are not lining up to visit or dwell amidst more sprawl, that is exactly what they seek to escape. Cheap shopping plopped nearby only cheapens us. R..D. Haratani

Columbia