Letter in Noozhawk.. Regarding the Oct. 16 Santa Barbara County Housing Element item,
State building mandates are forcing counties into a rush to develop and build.
After counties had their heydays of building strip malls, rancho villas and low-end apartments, we thought that was the end. We all could stop development, and the counties could stop planning and building needed infrastructure for water, sewer, roads.
But now the state has opened the borders of California, opened the jobs, welfare, schools, hospitals, jails to a variety of immigrants who, for the most part, add cheap labor but no tax revenues to state government.
And so the result is a Sacramento forced building spree, to accommodate all these newcomers flooding in from all corners of the world.
And just wait, because we have no infrastructure to accommodate all these new houses and apartments. That’s really going to cost: new dams, new sewer plants, new schools, hospitals, government buildings and officials.
We are talking about tax, tax, tax and more tax. And soon, Proposition 13 will be gutted because the state wants all this wealth transfer from the boomer generation to go to Sacramento, not to the sons and daughters of boomers.
So now, if homeowners wanted to open their homes, offices, garages, backyards to the masses flooding into California, that would be just swell. Except these friendly Californians who want open immigration, for some reason do not open their own homes. They just don’t. They expect the small towns and landlords to take on this burden, with rent control!!
So the option that Sacramento is excited about is; forced development. Who voted for this? Well, it must be the dominant political party in California. You certainly cannot blame Republicans because we are 22% in CA legislatures.
This state-forced development is in overall conflict with the beliefs and dreams of many Californians. Beliefs such as limited growth, limited ecological footprints, limited pollution and crowding, are now totally dumped for mass growth.
The whole idea of setting aside agricultural land from development was to prevent the dreaded urban sprawl from sprawling up from the cities. Yet massive urban sprawl is now the order of things.
And so, due to all the above, all thoughts of saving the environment, ecology, limited growth, and the peaceful use and enjoyment of one’s land are out the window.
Counties and cities are now forced by Sacramento to build, or else the state will zone land and have it built for us through the “Builder’s Remedy” process. A State mandated program that gives builders, when faced with too many local regulations/foot dragging on their projects, a pass to get their projects approved in a few weeks, simply by passing local building departments.
When will people realize we cannot flood in the entire world and expect them all to go to Texas. California now must pay the piper for its feigned largess, and it’s a very expensive song.
Thomas Cole
Montecito, CA
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