Measure J is Agenda 21
Measure J proponents argue that Measure J will fund Highway 1 widening and alternative means of transportation projects. Opponents see the measure as an ineffective crutch to support an allegedly unsustainable car culture. Both sides fail to explain what this bond will truly accomplish.
(PRWEB) October 25, 2004 -- The $577 million dollars that will be raised by
the passing of Measure J (plus interest) are slated to fund not only the
deliberately slow and agonizing process of widening Highway 1 (which will last
until 2017), but it will also include restrictions on how we use that extra lane
once it is in place. Measure J will also fund the purchase of a 32-mile railroad
right-of-way currently owned by Union Pacific. In addition, transportation
planners have added a number of other projects that will be left up to the
individual cities and unincorporated counties areas to determine. Will this mean
more "traffic calming" projects? Measure J funds will not be used to solve the
Fish Hook bottleneck at the junction of Highways 1 and 17.
Deteriorating
trestles like this one in La Selva Beach will cost millions to repair
A
bird's-eye view of transportation policy in Santa Cruz County shows that Measure
J is merely one step in a progression of various policies that, over the years,
are planning to remove residents from their cars and create a community
dependent on tax-subsidized transportation. What's not always recognized by even
the most astute observers is the fact that government-subsidized transportation
systems are being developed in conjunction with housing policies with the end
result of transferring county residents into densely-packed communities along
the railroad and bus line corridors, with heavy restrictions on every aspect of
their lives. Transportation is only the beginning.
Ellen Pirie, a Santa
Cruz County Supervisor, said recently that Measure J would have the effect of
"getting people out of their cars". She was also part of a team that granted
authority to the County Planning Director to determine "emergency" zoning
densifications along transportation corridors.
"Smart Growth"
Funding
Sunne Wright-McPeak, the Secretary of Business, Transportation and
Housing for the State of California under Governor Schwarzenegger, has declared
that housing and transportation funding from the state level will be dispersed
more willingly to those communities that follow "smart growth" principles, which
include various efforts to promote heavily-subsidized alternate modes of
transportation, extremely dense housing blocks with an associated "jobs
balance". When Santa Cruz officials announced recently that they would receive
$295 million dollars in funding from the state Housing and Community Development
agency, they were voicing their agreement that government planners should be
dictating where people will live, where they will work, and how they will
travel.
The Santa Cruz County Planning Department and Board of
Supervisors are seeking approval from the State Housing and Community
Development Office for the Santa Cruz County Draft Housing Element. The
projections in that plan are based on demographic studies done by the
non-elected regional planning agency of Monterey Bay, called the Association of
Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG). AMBAG has called for the construction of
approximately 10,000 new units over the next 25 years, most of which will be
built in high-density developments in close proximity to the railroad tracks and
bus lines in order to fall under the designation of "transit-oriented
development", a category called for in McPeak's statewide "smart growth" agenda.
Every "smart growth" plan conceived includes an alternative transportation
element and Measure J would clear that hurdle, thereby speeding the movement of
Santa Cruz County toward the controlled and concentrated camps envisioned by
County planners.
"Underutilized" Properties Targeted
Meanwhile, as
Measure J is bringing bank-breaking transportation schemes to our community, the
correlative housing policies have declared over 190 properties to be
"underutilized", which make them prime targets for rezoning, demolition and
reconstruction to achieve planners' density "visions". Lest anyone be confused,
"underutilized" parcels are those that may or may not have buildings on them and
whose use does not comply with planners' concocted schemes for the neighborhood.
This means that parcels with existing homes and businesses are targeted for
change to fit within the high-density, government-controlled housing
plans.
The "alternate modes of transportation" funded by Measure J are
already being promoted through the establishment of various community plans
across the county. The Aptos Village Plan, a pet project of Supervisor Ellen
Pirie, will bring in over 300,000 square feet of new development, the majority
of which appear to be controlled by a single development company that appears
willing to be compliant to planners' Smart Growth dictates. Many of these new
housing 'units' will be leased or sold under "affordable" (subsidized) housing
guidelines which place many living and resale restrictions on the renters and
homeowners. Communities that are subjected to these "village plans" will be
redesigned with an emphasis on carless mobility, in part to encourage dependency
on public transit systems.
Government-Private Partnerships
As
community infrastructure develops around transportation corridors housing will
be built through a series of government-private partnerships, which require
cooperation between private industry and government power brokers in order to do
business. This unholy alliance benefits insiders at taxpayers' expense and to
the detriment of consumer choice.
The system that has been put in place
is morally corrupt and encourages abuse by business operators who seek
preferential treatment and are willing to submit to "Sustainable Development"
guidelines in order to secure inflated government building contracts. Consider
the pandering that can take place as public officials seek to have their
political agendas implemented by use of a litany of "incentives", "exemptions"
and "allowances" to curry action by compliant developers. At Planning Commission
hearings one developer can be denied his building permit simply for failing to
denote the names of the plants in his project in English (rather than their
proper Latin names), while a huge non-profit developer can get an affordable
housing project with a significant lack of parking or other rationally required
improvements with nary an eyebrow raised.
Conclusion
As Santa Cruz
County voters go to the polls on November 2, 2004, they will be asked to make a
few very quick decisions that could have far-reaching effects on the makeup of
our community. Measure J, a bond measure that would create a half-cent sales tax
to raise money for transportation projects, is a devious attempt to con local
residents into funding the very demolition of their community.
Note: See
the related article, A Citizen's Analysis of Measure J, by Michael
Shaw...
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/10/prweb168605.htm