Catching up...roundup

It's time to do a roundup and catch up on comments that I haven't been able to respond to lately.

Gracy asked about the APCD Board Meeting. Thanks for asking Gracy. It was very interesting. It's held at the Board of Supervisors office in Ventura. The meeting was packed and the facility is more grand than our council chambers. The APCD Board meeting is different than the Advisory Board that I am on. The APCD Board consists of the County Board of Supervisors and 5 elected officials from different cities. The Advisory board consists of 20 citizens who will provide input from a public level.

Basically the main topic of the day was to oppose a decision by the EPA to exempt the proposed BHP Billiton LNG terminal about 15 miles offshore, from any review by our APCD. There were many speakers, most in favor of opposing the EPA. The Board agreed to oppose the EPA. This took several hours. It's amazing the amount of work that goes into every little legislative act.

Anonymous 5:11 pm: What does this mean? "Is North Fillmore building a partial side road to Norway?" It sounds like a riddle to me and I don't have a clue.

Anonymous 8:43 am: I don't mean to ignore your comments but it's just that you are so prolific and you usually have 20 different statements to address that I just don't have the time to go through each one at length. And, I'm not being critical in a mean way about the writing - I just want you to know that it's difficult to respond when it's hard to read. I want to respond in a meaningful detailed way. That's a lot of work. Okay, with that said, I'll tackle a few of your points.

1. Citizens for Responsible Growth "pac" meetings. I've stated several times that the group is not a pac, has no money, no way to collect it or disburse it. What we are is just a bunch of concerned citizens. And, yes the meetings are open to the public. When we were meeting regularly, there were several times that we wrote in the Gazette the time, date and location. (Sundays at 2:00 at either River Street church or D and Sespe church). In several of my letters to the editor I gave out my phone number asking people to call me in case they wanted to participate. I believe Todd and maybe Ralph Rees publicly invited people at council meetings. Some how you missed all this and that's unfortunate if you wanted to participate. There were many people who showed up that I had no idea who they were or how they found out but they did. If we have meetings I usually try to email everyone to let them know. If you send your email address I will put you on my list.

2. If you are asking me about what Patti voted on the GP update, I don't know. I wasn't here and frankly it's kind of a moot point. It's also nitpicky. Those flyers were all garbage and just weak attempts that obviously didn't work. Nobody else read them either.

3. I've explained my view of the 894 vs. 700 situation many times in great detail. Your reasoning might be good but I can't follow it with the writing format. We just have to agree to disagree. You do have a good point about questioning city staff. But, I've read Roger Myers' opinion, heard his remarks, city council remarks, Kevin's remarks(tonight). The thing is, the situation is so ambiguous and conflicted that no one understands it.

Now I really want to get into the 1:14 pm comments but trying to read it is making my head spin. And, the reason I think you are getting too personal is that you go on too much about what Patti did in the past - on every rant. I can't address what happened in the past. I can barely keep up with what's happening now so you'll have to let it go and move forward.

You do mention the traffic study after each 100 homes. I can discuss that. Many people believe that traffic is NOW below our circulation levels of service. The traffic studies presented with the EIR stated that our levels of service are in compliance with our General Plan. I personally tested the levels of service at various signals in town and found them to be below a D. Traffic is a major issue to many people. If the traffic studies in the EIR deny that our level of service is not up to par now, why would that change after 100 homes are added?

You also talk about single family homes for $700,000. That's the price that Griffin's getting for Heritage Valley Parks. Those are large houses. I don't think all single family houses have to be that big. There can and should be a compromise between high density multi-family and huge single family. I live in a low income entry level neighborhood with houses in the mid-400's. That's a lot different than Griffin's $700,000. I think my neighborhood is about 8 du/acre. We're pretty crowded here. People shouldn't have to live in housing much more crowded than this.

As far as immigration, I do agree with you. If you grew up in Southern California I don't think you can be racist. We all grew up with our best pals being hispanic and vice versa. We have a common culture that's unique.

What do you mean that the information presented to the city council should have been more specific?