Proposed Guernewood park fiasco
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christmas leubrie
Jun 17, 2021, 11:56:21 AM6/17/21
to Lynda....@sonoma-county.org
Dear Lynda,
I've tried , but have been unable to leave you a phone message , as your mailbox is full, so I am emailing you.
If it were not for Covid restrictions requiring zoom meetings I would definitely be present in opposition to this debacle of the proposed Guernewood park luxury hotel. I am unable to be at the zoom meeting, so I am writing you here .
Some of the reasons this is a terrible idea:
1) We are in a drought and being advised to greatly limit our water use around here. The construction process alone is a huge waste of millions of gallons of water in a time of terrible drought and fire risk. The forest is crackling dry, and we fully expect great stretches of our beloved Russian River will be so low we can easily walk across it ,but not swim or navigate (even in kayaks )this summer. As it us most of us are flushing toilets with saved shower water, reusing dishwater for critical landscaping, and letting most other landscaping die or suffer from lack of watering, just to do our part. Add to this the drain of this proposed LUXORY Project ( when opened) with our hugely impacted fire season and their obvious enormous additional water use in a facility this huge, and that alone should end this project.
Then additionally:
A) the traffic of the construction vehicles in our major escape route , highway 116 will be a nightmare, and create gridlock, in the prolonged construction period.
B) after construction the volume of traffic from guests and delivery vehicles is going to create additional chronic gridlock in our sole artery in and out of the area. Considering our extremely high fire risk, it's absolutely insane to add potentially hundreds of extra vehicles from folks unfamiliar with our area who will greatly impact our ability to leave in the highly likely fire evacuation emergencies. It's like planning a life endangering catastrophe to build this there.
C) the alleged jobs created will be low income jobs that will not pay enough for folks to even live in our area. The only higher income jobs will be the temporary construction ones most likely given to the folks they import from outside our communities. This doesn't in any way address the enormous need for well paying jobs our existing community desperately needs.
D) the volume of sewage added to our strained sewer system is going to greatly tax it, in an area already maxed out.
E) probably the most important factor is the great need for low income housing, not additional tourist concentration. This community is served by many folks who increasingly have to drive in long distances back to the community they were born in to work here serving tourists at very low wages, as they can no longer afford to live in the community in which they were raised. Many folks who work around here live in their vehicles or motor homes along our roads as they cannot find housing. Unhoused doesn't mean unemployed, it means they cannot find housing. When does our actual working community, increasingly priced out by the focus in wealthy individuals ,ever get first in consideration? Where is the housing for our REAL community ?
I have volunteered for many years at our local food bank .Many people who work full time in our area come weekly, (even before the pandemic )to our local food banks as they cannot afford to live and eat here without help as the local wages are so low. This facility will , in no way, serve our actual community needs. It will , in fact , be a further drain on our limited resources.
Most emphatically, and urgently, I urge a no on this proposal.
Christmas Leubrie , homeowner for 32 years in Monte Rio
PS. I am bcc to many in our community who are likely unaware this zoom meeting tonight about this terrible project is happening .
****** For those of you who might not be aware : the meeting about THE PROPOSED 120 ROOM LUXORY HOTEL IN GUERNEWOOD PARK is on :
ZOOM, tonight ( Thursday) 6/17/21 at 5:30 is a MAC meeting. The Zoom passcode is 479085. Incidentally, another community member told me about this meeting. I never saw local posting about this issue. I never heard anything from our current MAC representative about this , (or anything else.)******
Sent from my iPad
I've tried , but have been unable to leave you a phone message , as your mailbox is full, so I am emailing you.
If it were not for Covid restrictions requiring zoom meetings I would definitely be present in opposition to this debacle of the proposed Guernewood park luxury hotel. I am unable to be at the zoom meeting, so I am writing you here .
Some of the reasons this is a terrible idea:
1) We are in a drought and being advised to greatly limit our water use around here. The construction process alone is a huge waste of millions of gallons of water in a time of terrible drought and fire risk. The forest is crackling dry, and we fully expect great stretches of our beloved Russian River will be so low we can easily walk across it ,but not swim or navigate (even in kayaks )this summer. As it us most of us are flushing toilets with saved shower water, reusing dishwater for critical landscaping, and letting most other landscaping die or suffer from lack of watering, just to do our part. Add to this the drain of this proposed LUXORY Project ( when opened) with our hugely impacted fire season and their obvious enormous additional water use in a facility this huge, and that alone should end this project.
Then additionally:
A) the traffic of the construction vehicles in our major escape route , highway 116 will be a nightmare, and create gridlock, in the prolonged construction period.
B) after construction the volume of traffic from guests and delivery vehicles is going to create additional chronic gridlock in our sole artery in and out of the area. Considering our extremely high fire risk, it's absolutely insane to add potentially hundreds of extra vehicles from folks unfamiliar with our area who will greatly impact our ability to leave in the highly likely fire evacuation emergencies. It's like planning a life endangering catastrophe to build this there.
C) the alleged jobs created will be low income jobs that will not pay enough for folks to even live in our area. The only higher income jobs will be the temporary construction ones most likely given to the folks they import from outside our communities. This doesn't in any way address the enormous need for well paying jobs our existing community desperately needs.
D) the volume of sewage added to our strained sewer system is going to greatly tax it, in an area already maxed out.
E) probably the most important factor is the great need for low income housing, not additional tourist concentration. This community is served by many folks who increasingly have to drive in long distances back to the community they were born in to work here serving tourists at very low wages, as they can no longer afford to live in the community in which they were raised. Many folks who work around here live in their vehicles or motor homes along our roads as they cannot find housing. Unhoused doesn't mean unemployed, it means they cannot find housing. When does our actual working community, increasingly priced out by the focus in wealthy individuals ,ever get first in consideration? Where is the housing for our REAL community ?
I have volunteered for many years at our local food bank .Many people who work full time in our area come weekly, (even before the pandemic )to our local food banks as they cannot afford to live and eat here without help as the local wages are so low. This facility will , in no way, serve our actual community needs. It will , in fact , be a further drain on our limited resources.
Most emphatically, and urgently, I urge a no on this proposal.
Christmas Leubrie , homeowner for 32 years in Monte Rio
PS. I am bcc to many in our community who are likely unaware this zoom meeting tonight about this terrible project is happening .
****** For those of you who might not be aware : the meeting about THE PROPOSED 120 ROOM LUXORY HOTEL IN GUERNEWOOD PARK is on :
ZOOM, tonight ( Thursday) 6/17/21 at 5:30 is a MAC meeting. The Zoom passcode is 479085. Incidentally, another community member told me about this meeting. I never saw local posting about this issue. I never heard anything from our current MAC representative about this , (or anything else.)******
Sent from my iPad
CYNTHIA STRECKER
Jun 17, 2021, 1:46:53 PM6/17/21
to 'christmas leubrie' via Monte Rio Community Garden
Wow, Christmas, you are the best! A great letter! When Steve Baxman saw your letter ... I guess about the folks starting fires ... he laughed and said, "Wow! She's really something! I would hate to have her on my case!" I agree.
Thanks so much for all you do!!!!!!!
Cynthia
P.S. Where did you get that beautiful straw you and Wen are using on your plots? Was it expensive? I've got to get some mulch
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