Mark your calendars! This plan is UNACCEPTABLE!
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Water Not Wineries
Sep 15, 2009, 4:22:24 PM9/15/09
to WNW Listserv
Greetings!
Thanks for showing your interest in the important development issues of Sonoma County, and most currently, the proposed development of dual wine industry facilities at the corner of Occidental Road at scenic Highway 116. The planning for this project is flawed, and is being UNACCEPTABLY "fast-tracked" through the environmental review and permitting process. If you're not fully aware of this, please review the Sonoma West article (August 27, 2009) that reasonably describes some of the problems; you can see it at
http://sonomawest.com/articles/2009/08/26/sonoma_west_times_and_news/news/doc4a959db80dc9f545203940.txt
or on the Google Groups site at
http://groups.google.com/group/water-not-wineries/web/article---sonomawest-com
As you can well imagine, the affected neighbors to this project are organizing and working diligently to insure their voices are heard and their concerns addressed. All their time and energy is now devoted to developing and submitting their position statements in time for inclusion in the packets being prepared for the Sonoma County Supervisors' meeting on October 6th at 2:10 pm. It's for this reason, that this bulletin has been inactive. According to Tracy Tesconi of PRMD, the submission deadline these submitters need to meet is Friday, September 18th.
What can you do?
Learn about this project. Make sure other concerned and affected citizens learn about this project, either by forwarding information to them by word of mouth or by all available internet resources. Know not only how this project is impacting an otherwise stable rural neighborhood, but what the impacts are to the greater neighboring areas (i.e., water use, traffic corridors) and precedent in Sonoma County.
Show your support by encouraging other concerned citizens to join this listserv. They can do so simply by visiting http://groups.google.com/group/water-not-wineries/subscribe (Applicants who do now have Google accounts will be asked to create one, an easy process requiring only your email address and an access password.)
Show your support with letters and articles. The word will only get out if people contribute to the many newspapers, large and small. Most publications accept letters to the editor. If you're familiar with the problem or you hold strong perspectives, consider submitting articles.
Call or write to your supervisor to express your concerns. Contact all of the supervisors to encourage them to avoid such precarious variations to the General Plan, and specifically the issues at hand.
Show your support by attending relevant meetings. Make sure you mark your calendar to attend the Supervisors Meeting of October 6th at 2:10 pm, the time designated to review and vote upon the variances recommended by the Planning Commission.
And by all means, if you have questions or concerns on this issue that you need addressed, or if you have further insights or resources to offer that may assist these people in preserving what they hold to be so valuable, do write to
water.not...@gmail.com
=======================================
In the meanwhile, consider that this is but one of an ongoing pattern that has developed in our county. Take the time to read the following, published this last Spring in the Russian River Times:
============
Studebaker’s Mess - Profit Driven Developer Trumps Protection of People and Environment In Sonoma
By Steve Zeltzer
Bucolic Sonoma is today gaining a reputation as a developers dream. Using their multi-million dollar budgets and control of local politicians and government agencies that are supposed to protect the environment and the people of the county the exact opposite is taking place.
One of the prime examples today is the handy work of millionaire scion Jack Studebaker of the Studebaker brothers who I believe founded the auto company. Jack now lives in the most expensive mansion in Rancho Santa Fe. In fact, Jack is presently in a beef over his new $30 million dollar house in the highly exclusive Rancho Santa Fe area in San Diego. Although the house was listed for over $32 million, apparently Studebaker picked it up for only $17 million. This is being investigated by the County Assessor for any evidence that Studebaker may have sought to rig the price to limit taxes. Is this another example of tax shifting by the rich in California?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040826/news_1c26rancho.html
This same Studebaker is now running a scam to destroy the environment of Sonoma County for his company Mesa Beverage. “Jack” Studebaker is general counsel of Liquid Investments Inc., the parent firm of Mesa Distributing Co., a local company that distributes beer and soft drinks” according the the San Diego Union. Isn’t he the real owner of the Mesa Beverage Corporation which is building a major beverage distribution operation in Sonoma at an important wetlands area in Mark West Creek? Although he denies this more and more facts show the opposite.
This Sonoma development project exposes the complete failure of governmental and environmental oversight not just at this site but in most big development projects.
As usual the developer pays for a study to give them the right to develop. Surprise, surprise, the impact study which they call a Mitigated Negative Declaration MND is used by developers as a subterfuge vehicle to avoid a real environmental impact report EIR.
This has now become common operating procedure not only in Sonoma but throughout the state. In San Francisco this very month, one of these MND statements was produced by the Hines Development company that would have allowed the demolishment of the ILA-ILWU headquarters near Market where the general strike of San Francisco was planned and organized.
The developer had paid for a study that said that the site on the Embarcadero near the SF Ferry Building had no historical importance. When this was exposed at a hearing of the SF Board of Supervisors, they rejected the MND and ordered a full Environmental Impact Report.
With 25% building trades unemployment the pressure obviously is on to get jobs for the thousands of unemployed construction workers and the building industry but at what cost?
In Sonoma’s case like San Francisco, Studebaker wired the the process so even though there have been many floods on this wetland site and it will lead to a massive increase in big truck traffic there seemed to be no problems according to the Sonoma Design Review Committee and the Sonoma Planning Department. At the Board Of Supervisors, Valerie Brown acting as a shill for the developer also ignored the fact that this development would severely impact the historic environmental conditions at the site. Supervisor Paul Kelley who represents the very area where this scam has taken place is apparently, the kind of politician who has never seen a development he didn’t like and his born again ideology is build, build, build regardless of the cost or any other environmental concerns.
In addition to destroying wildlife including the habitat for the protected California tiger salamander it would increase the likelihood of massive flooding during any serious storms. In fact in another example of the manipulated report the developer paid for, the only study was a two year study of flooding.
As Brown, Kelley and other Sonoma politicians should have learned after one environmental disaster after another, a two year study of floods when there have been floods in California that have cost lives and billions of dollars of property along with the environmental blowback to such unbridled development is a possible cost.
Finally in frustration, and at great cost, some of the home owners including Beverly Schenck and Jean McMullen who know what floods can do and also know what this monstrosity will do to their homes have raised the funds to file a lawsuit against Studebaker.
This long term costly battle is not just about this site and Studebacker but how the environmental protections in Sonoma and throughout California have been twisted and turned into their opposite by wealthy corporations and their owners.
It is time to challenge not only this project but the whole manipulation of the process that has turned into it’s opposite.
=================
FORWARD THIS MESSAGE!
--
Water Not Wineries
A neighborhood committee dedicated to preserving rural Sonoma County from unsound commercial winery encroachment.
Visit the WNW site at
http://groups.google.com/group/water-not-wineries
Thanks for showing your interest in the important development issues of Sonoma County, and most currently, the proposed development of dual wine industry facilities at the corner of Occidental Road at scenic Highway 116. The planning for this project is flawed, and is being UNACCEPTABLY "fast-tracked" through the environmental review and permitting process. If you're not fully aware of this, please review the Sonoma West article (August 27, 2009) that reasonably describes some of the problems; you can see it at
http://sonomawest.com/articles/2009/08/26/sonoma_west_times_and_news/news/doc4a959db80dc9f545203940.txt
or on the Google Groups site at
http://groups.google.com/group/water-not-wineries/web/article---sonomawest-com
As you can well imagine, the affected neighbors to this project are organizing and working diligently to insure their voices are heard and their concerns addressed. All their time and energy is now devoted to developing and submitting their position statements in time for inclusion in the packets being prepared for the Sonoma County Supervisors' meeting on October 6th at 2:10 pm. It's for this reason, that this bulletin has been inactive. According to Tracy Tesconi of PRMD, the submission deadline these submitters need to meet is Friday, September 18th.
What can you do?
Learn about this project. Make sure other concerned and affected citizens learn about this project, either by forwarding information to them by word of mouth or by all available internet resources. Know not only how this project is impacting an otherwise stable rural neighborhood, but what the impacts are to the greater neighboring areas (i.e., water use, traffic corridors) and precedent in Sonoma County.
Show your support by encouraging other concerned citizens to join this listserv. They can do so simply by visiting http://groups.google.com/group/water-not-wineries/subscribe (Applicants who do now have Google accounts will be asked to create one, an easy process requiring only your email address and an access password.)
Show your support with letters and articles. The word will only get out if people contribute to the many newspapers, large and small. Most publications accept letters to the editor. If you're familiar with the problem or you hold strong perspectives, consider submitting articles.
Call or write to your supervisor to express your concerns. Contact all of the supervisors to encourage them to avoid such precarious variations to the General Plan, and specifically the issues at hand.
County of Sonoma Board of Supervisors
575 Administration Drive, Room 100A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
TEL: (707) 565-2241
575 Administration Drive, Room 100A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
TEL: (707) 565-2241
Show your support by attending relevant meetings. Make sure you mark your calendar to attend the Supervisors Meeting of October 6th at 2:10 pm, the time designated to review and vote upon the variances recommended by the Planning Commission.
And by all means, if you have questions or concerns on this issue that you need addressed, or if you have further insights or resources to offer that may assist these people in preserving what they hold to be so valuable, do write to
water.not...@gmail.com
=======================================
In the meanwhile, consider that this is but one of an ongoing pattern that has developed in our county. Take the time to read the following, published this last Spring in the Russian River Times:
============
Studebaker’s Mess - Profit Driven Developer Trumps Protection of People and Environment In Sonoma
By Steve Zeltzer
Bucolic Sonoma is today gaining a reputation as a developers dream. Using their multi-million dollar budgets and control of local politicians and government agencies that are supposed to protect the environment and the people of the county the exact opposite is taking place.
One of the prime examples today is the handy work of millionaire scion Jack Studebaker of the Studebaker brothers who I believe founded the auto company. Jack now lives in the most expensive mansion in Rancho Santa Fe. In fact, Jack is presently in a beef over his new $30 million dollar house in the highly exclusive Rancho Santa Fe area in San Diego. Although the house was listed for over $32 million, apparently Studebaker picked it up for only $17 million. This is being investigated by the County Assessor for any evidence that Studebaker may have sought to rig the price to limit taxes. Is this another example of tax shifting by the rich in California?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040826/news_1c26rancho.html
This same Studebaker is now running a scam to destroy the environment of Sonoma County for his company Mesa Beverage. “Jack” Studebaker is general counsel of Liquid Investments Inc., the parent firm of Mesa Distributing Co., a local company that distributes beer and soft drinks” according the the San Diego Union. Isn’t he the real owner of the Mesa Beverage Corporation which is building a major beverage distribution operation in Sonoma at an important wetlands area in Mark West Creek? Although he denies this more and more facts show the opposite.
This Sonoma development project exposes the complete failure of governmental and environmental oversight not just at this site but in most big development projects.
As usual the developer pays for a study to give them the right to develop. Surprise, surprise, the impact study which they call a Mitigated Negative Declaration MND is used by developers as a subterfuge vehicle to avoid a real environmental impact report EIR.
This has now become common operating procedure not only in Sonoma but throughout the state. In San Francisco this very month, one of these MND statements was produced by the Hines Development company that would have allowed the demolishment of the ILA-ILWU headquarters near Market where the general strike of San Francisco was planned and organized.
The developer had paid for a study that said that the site on the Embarcadero near the SF Ferry Building had no historical importance. When this was exposed at a hearing of the SF Board of Supervisors, they rejected the MND and ordered a full Environmental Impact Report.
With 25% building trades unemployment the pressure obviously is on to get jobs for the thousands of unemployed construction workers and the building industry but at what cost?
In Sonoma’s case like San Francisco, Studebaker wired the the process so even though there have been many floods on this wetland site and it will lead to a massive increase in big truck traffic there seemed to be no problems according to the Sonoma Design Review Committee and the Sonoma Planning Department. At the Board Of Supervisors, Valerie Brown acting as a shill for the developer also ignored the fact that this development would severely impact the historic environmental conditions at the site. Supervisor Paul Kelley who represents the very area where this scam has taken place is apparently, the kind of politician who has never seen a development he didn’t like and his born again ideology is build, build, build regardless of the cost or any other environmental concerns.
In addition to destroying wildlife including the habitat for the protected California tiger salamander it would increase the likelihood of massive flooding during any serious storms. In fact in another example of the manipulated report the developer paid for, the only study was a two year study of flooding.
As Brown, Kelley and other Sonoma politicians should have learned after one environmental disaster after another, a two year study of floods when there have been floods in California that have cost lives and billions of dollars of property along with the environmental blowback to such unbridled development is a possible cost.
Finally in frustration, and at great cost, some of the home owners including Beverly Schenck and Jean McMullen who know what floods can do and also know what this monstrosity will do to their homes have raised the funds to file a lawsuit against Studebaker.
This long term costly battle is not just about this site and Studebacker but how the environmental protections in Sonoma and throughout California have been twisted and turned into their opposite by wealthy corporations and their owners.
It is time to challenge not only this project but the whole manipulation of the process that has turned into it’s opposite.
=================
FORWARD THIS MESSAGE!
--
Water Not Wineries
A neighborhood committee dedicated to preserving rural Sonoma County from unsound commercial winery encroachment.
Visit the WNW site at
http://groups.google.com/group/water-not-wineries
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