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The
only legal document created by the people, for the people that connects the
people here is the General Plan. The "hill to die on" is the
General Plan.
The
Planning Commission will begin reviewing the General Plan again at a
Special Meeting on Tuesday, 6PM, Vintage Hall. Please read just the
Council-changed Land Use Element alone which I compared line by
line to the 2010 original on the City's website. The red arrows
point to 22 "stealth changes", not marked or identified in any
way as a change, but appearing in the Staff Report the same as original
text.
This
is not an oversight at this point -- after 4 years of changing, numerous
re-writes (including one at the City Attorney's office), and too many
hearings to count, it is an act of deception. Please demand that the
process stop until every single change has been fully identified and the
public noticed in a comprehensible form. Here are their email
addresses: matthewh@cityofsthelena.org,
brianr@cityofsthelena.org, bobbimonnette@yahoo.com, bobbimonnette@yahoo.com,
gracek@cityofsthelena.org, sparker@cityofsthelena.org,
jenniferp@cityofsthelena.org.
Many are concerned about the
hypocrisy of espousing "small town charm" while watching St.
Helena be "Caramelized" by commercial opportunists. Speculators
disguise intentions, work behind the scenes, pretend mitigations will
fix everything and that residents count. If the Council-changed
version of the General Plan is adopted, we can look forward to more
disparity between words and actions; it will be a race to the bottom.
The Staff Report document of all changes -- given
to the Planning Commissioners and public as the complete changed General
Plan. (The document is a mess when it need not be.)
Stealth Changes in the Land Use Element.
Scroll 1/2 way down, see red arrows. Double click on comment bubbles to
read the original text for comparison. Highlighted sections are
problematic. There are 11 Elements in the GP; such stealth
changes can be expected throughout. This is exactly why the
present administration cannot and should not be trusted for another term.
Sandy
P.S. Seth
Godin sums it up:
"We can transform a priceless thing
into a worthless one. Mishandle it, disrespect it, break it, leave it out
in the rain. The compromise of the moment, the urgency of now, the lack of
a long view -- it's trivially easy to destroy things we think of as
priceless.
But
we can also transform the worthless into things valuable beyond measure.
When we attach memories to something, it becomes worth treasuring. And when
the tribe uses it to connect, we have a hard time imagining living without
it."
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