How Does It Really Work?

As I read and wrote about the Draft (or daft?) Environmental Impact Report for our General Plan, its underlying principle of the official belief in global warming/climate change kept repeating itself as the guiding light for the way we have to change our entire way of life.  This belief was packaged, endorsed and sold to the public successfully enough to become law in California. Because of this we are to leave the land and live in dense settlements since energy consuming travel must be severely minimized.  This accomplishes the environmental goal of returning much of the earth to wild animals and obscure plants, a goal to extreme for public approval without the fear of burning alive on a parched earth.  

Bursting forth in the 1960’s was the women’s liberation movement. It said that women should have the same traditional workplace roles as men. The two paycheck household became the norm. Today, a family can’t survive without two incomes. Is this, looking at it from another perspective, merely an accommodation to the permanent inflation policy in effect since the Federal Reserve Bank became activated under President Woodrow Wilson? A dollar back then is worth less that a cent today. Is this all a coincidence, or is something more at work?

The world’s population has grown exponentially, and many fear over population and the myriad problems it may cause. Suddenly, it’s OK to be gay or lesbian, or have abortion on demand. Some will even argue that these new acceptances are simply an instinctual response to overcrowding. And while I don’t have an explanation, I do observe and marvel at the timing of the events of social change.

In the Middle Ages, church and state were synonymous. Later, people found it freeing to separate church and state as in our Constitution. Then the state began to attack religion, first in Communist countries and currently in the Western world with secular humanism. Now, nanny state edicts attempt to replace our lost moral compass.

Some mystics go as far as to say that the instant information we have with the now portable internet simply replace a connected-ness and access to knowledge we had as a so called primitive people.  I have more questions than answers.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

DEIR: The Lords of Taste

As I proceed through this document, it becomes denser and even more specific. “The analysis of potential visual impacts… (including)…valued qualities of the affected environment (4.1-3) …designated in plans and policies for protection or special considerations…including, but not limited to, trees, rock outcropping, and historic buildings within a state scenic highway (4.1-4)’’.  Aside from that section of Hwy 88, the planners want to extend these considerations to the rest of Hwy 88 and to “…SR 16, SR 49 … and Ridge Road (4.1-4)” and also apply their aesthetic judgment to things that “… improve the visual character of new land uses (4.1-7)” and projects that “…substantially degrade the existing visual character or quality of the site and its surroundings… (4.1-4)”. Who defines surroundings? Note the expressions valued qualities, special considerations, improve the visual character and existing visual character. These all have subjective qualities. This is not the concept of law or the image of blind justice most Americans see as the bedrock of our way of life.

Their dangerous subjectivity continues with the Town Centers are “…to conform to a physical model similar to traditional rural towns (4.1-5)”.  Not that long ago some people believed that maintaining a traditional rural town meant racially segregated areas. Fortunately, that has changed. Our culture and our personal lives are all in constant flux and this naturally would be reflected in the built environment. This concept of stasis, like the concept of orderly growth, is unnatural. By their very nature they can only cause problems. I consider these assumptions to be a far greater significant impact that their alleged significant environmental impacts. The awareness that most people would consider an additional restaurant, gas station, etc along Hwy 88 as a convenience totally escapes them. And none of this has anything to do with preventing the real environmental hazard of pollution or even protecting so called endangered species.

Next are the “Increase in Light and Glare and Skyglow Effects…from development of urban land uses (4.1-7)”. While this increase is partly caused by the plan’s intent of crowding us into dense settlements, it must also be migrated. Their proposed measures include “Exterior building materials on nonresidential structures shall be composed of a minimum 50% low-reflectance, non-polished finishes (4.1-8)”. The shalls were eliminated from the General Plan and replaced with shoulds by action of the Board of Supervisors. But they have mysteriously reappeared in the DEIR for that plan.

This “significant and unavoidable” impact of urban areas night time light can also be mitigated by “Bare metallic surfaces (e.g., pipes, vents, light fixtures) shall be painted or etched to minimize reflectance (4.1-8)”. These measures are to be implemented “…to the maximum extent practicable… (4.1-8)”. But the most practical among us would assume, accept and it some cases desire the urban areas to be well lit.

Except for putting the Board of Supervisors on the decision-making hot seat of endless potential litigation, a discussion of cost versus benefit appears absent. Also missing is the common sense understanding that the harder you make it for someone to do something, the less likely it is to happen. Standards of living will decrease as innovation decreases. What if the work of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in their rented Palo Alto garage with occasional finishing touches done in a home oven wasn’t permissible?

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

Freedom Disappears in the General Plan DEIR

Freedom Disappears in the General Plan DEIR

In the Open Forest zone (3-11) no residential use is permitted. So if you wanted to live in the forest, for whatever personal meaning or desire it holds for your individual self, that right is gone. Despite the extensive length of this document and the copious appendices, I could not find the Environmental Impact Report Daniel Boone filed when he crossed the Cumberland Gap. But if you want to kill freedom, it’s better to forget our traditions.

The text continues with “new mixed use development” in the Martell Regional Service Center and the town centers (3-11) which will include up to 160 new housing units in Buckhorn added to the 90 housing units that currently exist there. Martell should have “creative future development” and River Pines should have “commercial uses focused on providing tourist services” (3-12). Who defines creative is left unanswered and I shudder to think it could be decided by the same types who wrote this document. Also I wonder if a River Pines resident that decides to open a business unrelated to tourism will have to somehow mitigate his former marketplace freedom.

Referring to the Town Centers as medieval villages is not a metaphor. People in Europe lived in crowded villages and left in the morning to farm plots surrounding the village. But when these people came to America they moved onto their land, generally building their homes in the middle of their property, and ditched the more restricted land use and communal living style of Europe. This is a fundamental historic difference between Europe and America that the planners want to relegate to the dustbin of history to whatever extent possible.

Our freedom to travel where we want will be governed by Transportation Demand Management which the Federal Highway Administration defines as “Road Pricing, Parking Management and Parking Pricing, Car Sharing, Pay-as-You-Drive Insurance, Ridesharing and HOV Lanes, Transit Incentives, Transit Improvements and Telework” along with Transportation System Management (3-13). The FHA defines this as including “Traffic Signal Optimization, Ramp Metering, Incident Management, Speed Limit Reduction and Enforcement, Roundabouts, Capacity Expansion, Resurfacing Roads and Alternative Construction Materials.” Out of these two laundry lists some are givens such as speed limit enforcement and the only others of traffic signal optimization, capacity expansion, resurfacing roads and alternative construction materials make sense for us. The rest should be discarded from this plan’s DEIR. Ironically for the no growth and CO2 fearing folks, resurfacing roads and alternative construction materials partly depend upon having the Newman Ridge project operational.   

The Economic Development Element’s first goal (3-17) is to “Develop and maintain a favorable business environment in the County.”  Exactly how a 2,000 or so page DEIR of restrictions and mitigations help accomplish this appears somewhat contradictory doesn’t it? But someone that convinces you they are helping you while they are hurting you would make Machiavelli proud.

One of the goals of the Conservation Element is “Reduce energy use and promote renewable and locally available sources of energy” (3-18).  Solar energy requires sunlight. A good example is the creamery in Pine Grove. Maximum sunlight reaches their roof from the open sky area created by their parking lot in front, Hwy 88 and then the parking lot across the street. But the Town Center plan wants parking behind the businesses with store fronts facing a sidewalk along the highway. The shadows this may cast across solar cells seem ignored. It appears more important to advocate and plan for both politically correct solar and town centers than understand the consequences of their specific and sometimes contradictory schemes.

Proceeding to Aesthetics in Section 4, Environmental Impact Analysis it states in relation to the National Scenic Byways Program “…increase public understanding of national forests…sustaining …ecosystems…      ensure that people remain socially connected to public lands…contribute to the Nation’s overall scenic byways efforts.” So now our General Plan to guide land use has become a publically sanctioned and funded propaganda device to promote a certain limited point of view.

Whole sections such as Governance that don’t belong here as a replacement ballot box, have been skipped as I’ve only hit some highlights. This document is rather long for a suicide note even for a whole county, but it effectiveness may lie in trying to tire us out and giving up or perhaps even scaring us into believing that freedom shouldn’t stand in the way of their abstract, static and deified environment.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett   

Land Use Control, or Just Control?

The Draft Environmental Impact Report for our General Plan continues with Project Characteristics (3-5) which informs us that in addition to the separate Housing Element, the General Plan and its EIR, there is also a Draft General Plan Implementation Plan. This is “a separate document that will guide the County’s elected officials, staff, and the public when putting the adopted General Plan goals and policies into practice…translate…from general terms to specific actions.” The planning profession may not have contributed much to making our communities better, but it has excelled at convincing law makers that its expensive services are essential and endless.

Starting on page 3-6 and continuing until page 3-13 is a discussion of the Land Use Element. Anyone reading this document by now has realized that it is series of outlines of outlines. This seems reminiscent of the time of Charles Dickens when writers were paid by the word. Only in this case it is us, the taxpayer, who pays the bill. The social policy elements persist with “quality child care” and “accessible health care”. I wonder if accessible health care bares any resemblance to our current “affordable” health care? Prior to development it must be ensured that “adequate water supply, wastewater treatment, and public services are available” (3-6). Does this mean that capital, either public or private, must be expended long before any possible benefit? This certainly succeeds in making everything more expensive since the value of money is measured in time. Imagine building this infrastructure for a development and then having it sit there during the almost inevitable lawsuit. This provision seems absurd anyway, since who would move into a home or open a business without running water, etc. However, if one wants to limit growth and feels that subterfuge is acceptable than this provision is loud and clear.

The Town Center squeeze continues with a tightly defined Pine Grove of 360 acres (3-12) planned for an additional 230 units (commercial and residential) added to the existing 250 units (3-11).  These can be 10 to 18 units/acre for units meeting certain income restrictions (3-10). Since this provision obviously refers to housing, perhaps the frightful prediction of the anti Dollar General folks of a Pine Grove ghetto will materialize.  

They also propose homes between Amador City and Sutter Creek to further compact the population despite stating “Enhance and maintain separate and distinct community areas within the County” (3-6).

As I previously posted these home sites, unless they are just grandfathering existing homes, are atop the mother lode as shown in the Housing Element (pg 51)and the mineral resources zone map in the Conservation Element (pg 15). While comparing the minerals resource map with the 10,622 acres (3-9) allotted to “Expected Development” with an unchanged number of units something seems askew. Or perhaps the 10,622 acres is just their self fulfilling projection of what won’t happen?

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

Dangers of the Global Warming Hoax

Dangers of the Global Warming Hoax

I care greatly about the world we will leave our descendants. Therefore, I am frightened by the widespread belief in a hoax that destroys the promise of science and exists solely to bring about vastly increased social control. One need look no further than the DEIR for our General Plan for proof. Some people go as far as to claim that, in the name of preventing climate change, we are poisoning the entire earth forever through geo engineering. But many are susceptible to this global falsehood because, as a now atheistic society, we have simply adopted a secular version of the apocalyptic vision of our traditional faiths.

CO2 is good. It feeds the plants and deserts are now blooming because we have a bit more. During the Medieval Warming Period, which the hoaxers are trying to hide, Greenland was green, the English grew wine grapes and bountiful harvests were good times for all. Nothing bad happened. But the climate became cold as witnessed by Dickens’s descriptions of the frozen Thames. These are natural cycles that have nothing to do with how many factories or campfires we have. Climate is separate from weather.

Our current drought is weather. But whatever one’s beliefs, we can all be proud of our county’s energy conservation. Kirkwood got rid of diesel power generation and joined the grid. The gravity supply line saves almost $300,000 in PG&E expense. That was accomplished by defeating those of the progressive viewpoint.

That viewpoint is expressed in a quote from D. Norman’s latest post: “Lincoln Mitchell, a human rights adviser to Columbia University, wrote in a blog post for the Huffington Post, ‘climate change was not solely caused by evil polluters, but by a species that, in large part, has for centuries been deeply committed to making, buying and selling things. For much of the time we did those things, nobody thought about long-term environmental impact.’ ”

Once again the environmental assumption that we are an intrusion to the natural world is repeated. I find this belief to be a very empty and lonely spiritual position.  Exchange has been the basis for human interaction since very primitive times. Of course, we would have less “environmental impact” if we lived in caves and wore animal skins. However, our life expectancy would be about 30 years and there would be other inconveniences.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

The DEIR Nightmare Continues

All the monsters are back in their film cans but the DEIR nightmare continues. If you haven’t yet chocked to death on greenhouses gases, pages 2-44 to 47, remind us of the nuisance of noise. While no one wants excessive noise, the concept of tolerating it for a relatively short periods of time for an obvious benefit seem absent from their analysis.  Real life is diminished by their supreme reason for a preconceived version of the public good. This logic continues with fatherly protection from construction vibration. “…mitigation…based on the project’s anticipated vibration would be determined during project-specific CEQA review.” How soon does the ‘when is enough moment’ come when we can’t afford to do anything anymore or have we already passed that? What are the unable to mitigate significant impacts of freezing the economy and relegating the American dream to history books?

We are further informed on page 2-49 that we have “…uncertainties related to future water supplies…” Assuredly we understand that without adequate future water we will all have a wild and scenic time.

The obvious need for increased fire protection with any increase in population (2-54 to 55) leaps from that necessity to mitigation which proposes “In order to evaluate and maintain the effectiveness of County services, The County will develop service standards for library, public safety, fire response, emergency services, human, and social services. Actual performance will be compared to these standards on an annual basis, and results presented to the Board of Supervisors with recommendations for action if necessary.” Isn’t this a regular, ongoing function of government? And what new group of pension rich agenda driven civil servants will staff this watchdog agency? And what is the real implication of substituting arbitrary standards for the assumed mature judgment of the people we elected to govern us? How this document leaps via the environmental review process from a needed general plan concern to a new means of social control smacks of the statements of leaders about public safety and such in countries presumed to be far different than ours. Calling this DEIR monstrous is not a metaphor.

This section from page 2-57 onward deals with traffic. Along with the regular impact fees for highways, mitigation must include “alternative transportation” (2-57) which is defined as “…pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and neighborhood electric vehicles…” (2-61). While I have seen new big city developments that didn’t provide any reasonable sites for bus stops, most of this has little implication for county areas. The text again reminds me that this DEIR is often just expensive cut and paste.

Part Three, the Project Description calls “…for providing adequate housing, including action programs” (3-1). This theme continues with “Project Objective 9: Maintain and enhance access to services, including health services, emergency services, quality child care and senior services, and educational opportunities for children and adults” (3-5). So a general plan for land use has morphed in a social policy plan that goes as far as to pretend to define quality care. How did this happen and who was responsible?  A government social policy plan, by necessity, must be secular. The vital child care provided by churches, as just one example, is not in their equation.  

Objective 2(3-4) pushes both sensible in fill development and the medieval village style town centers. The freedom to live where you want, except for the most affluent, is gone. Has the frontier saying that it’s time to move on when you see the smoke from your neighbor’s chimney been forgotten? Is part of our very spirit dissolving? “Encourage development of higher-wage jobs and support business, especially locally-owned and unique businesses” states Objective 4 (3-5). While that all sounds good, it ignores the obvious. Any significant employment creator requires capital from outside the county. Presently, those investors are greeted with a lawsuit rather than a handshake and legislative uncertainty about future water supplies.

“Accommodate the most recent population growth, housing, and employment projections in an orderly manner,” states Objective 3. But life and its reflections in economic activity and housing demand is never orderly. How many leaders of the 20th century valued order above all else?

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

The Werewolf Avoids this General Plan DEIR Critique

Despite the monstrous nature of the General Plan’s DEIR, the Werewolf has deferred judgment since it depends upon the wolfs bane blooming. While traditionally used to kill wolves or whales this toxic plant’s American variety, the trailing wolfs bane, is an endangered and/or threatened species in Tennessee and surrounding areas. So when the moon is full the Werewolf needs his stuff and his wolfs bane is protected. Fortunately the DEIR protects us against hazardous materials (2-36) by proposing “identifying businesses using, storing, and/or transporting hazardous materials.” Sounds real good, but it all depends upon who and what defines hazardous materials. How many of our old paint cans and fluorescent light bulbs are hazardous materials?  

The frightening prospect of forest fires is contained on page 2-37. Mitigation measures include “using fire-resistant materials, installing sprinkler systems, and providing on-site water supplies for firefighting” and “impact fees”. No mention is made of the possible carcinogenic nature of many fire-resistant materials. I find sprinkler systems to be ugly and to have them in my home, my most private and personal space, would be a grim reminder of state power’s ability of invasion like a computer chip in my palm would be.  No concern is voiced that each new requirement costs money and prices more and more people out of home ownership. Since growth is nonexistent today, except for perhaps for some lawsuits, it can only intend to slowly force us into town center apartments under someone else’s control.  Any trade off decision, or individual freedom to chose where one lives or assess their risk, is gone. Once again, their static natural world/ forest concept sees people as only a hostile intrusion. Their underlying assumption is laid bare because they completely ignore thinning the forests in the high country. We all know that a summer lightening strike fire spreading into the Upcountry is a real possibility.

Water quality concerns pages 2-38 to 2- 42.  Their proposals include “…climate appropriate landscaping…” and “reduced pavement cover, permeable pavement, and drainage features which increase infiltration and groundwater recharge.” These ideas seem to flow from the assumption that our rainwater belongs to the San Joaquin Valley aquifer and that it isn’t ours. Forget the graciousness of guest parking on your property. Given our clay soils permeable pavements will just trap moisture near structures rather than allowing it to run off into more porous soils. “…to reduce adverse hydrology and water quality impacts by limiting the quantity and increasing the water quality of runoff flowing to the County’s streams and rivers” they propose that “This program will incorporate stormwater management programs for agricultural land.” They seem to assume that farmers and ranchers callously let their top soil disappear. I would consider this an insult. 

So much of this DEIR depends upon the global warming hoax that carrying their logic forward I wonder what the Environmental Impact Report for having a child will entail? Will the stress of the process cause a miscarriage? How much CO2 does a pile of pampers emit? Can we mitigate this by killing our parents the way people did before the Ten Commandments said Honor thy Father and thy Mother?

The water quality discussion continues with proposing “low impact development techniques.” Housing is only abundant when we build what we can afford, not what an ideological expert decrees with a hidden agenda. If we lose the property owning middle class we have an impact on democracy, self governance and social stability far greater than any concocted concept of the environment. In the people off the land and into crowded settlements of this document’s intent we will all be frustrated enough to howl at the full moon like the Werewolf.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett  

The Invisible Man meets the General Plan

Just like the Invisible Man could not be seen, we the people of Amador County are not seen or heard in the DEIR for the General Plan except as an intrusion.  While fulfilling the mandates of current law, the land use which determines our way of life, our prosperity, our freedom and our values is gone. Being seen or heard is mitigated away. We are secondary to an abstract concept of the natural world.

Page 2-22 & 23 contain such stringent requirements for maintaining and replacing oak woodlands one wonders how they ever grew on their own before human intervention. Seeming to come from science’s need to freeze the moment for observation, this contradictory static view of a dynamic system prevails. This premise dooms it to failure along with the more obvious affects on the quality of human life. Reality is now invisible.

The “waters of the United States” fill pages 2-23 &24 with that edict from the Environmental Protection Agency never approved by Congress. “The government overreach from this rule would extend beyond farms to affect businesses, homes, schools, churches-any place built on land where water runs through after a heavy rain,” said Jimmy Parnell, president of the Alabama Farmers Federation. The mitigation required by the United States Army Corps of Engineers is both complex and costly. It is so extensive that if one were to complete all the paperwork the eye strain alone may require an additional ophthalmologists’ exam afterward. So if you want to build a home or business that may get wet I suggest you become invisible.

Cultural Resources follow on pages 2-25 to 27. While no one wants to trash these resources, people have lived in Amador County for millenniums so almost anything could be considered a cultural resource. The map on page 12 of the Draft General Plan’s Conservation Element shows Cultural Resources Sensitivity to encompass about a third of the county if you exclude the forested high country. I wonder how much a no growth attitude affected the judgment calls made for this map and the related extensive state and federal laws. Their text cites historic buildings, structures, objects, landscapes or sites. If destroyed the cultural resources can be documented, but the documentation versus feasibility of preservation decision required could induce a frenzy for future litigants.  

The Mineral Resources zoning is documented on page 2-19. The DEIR says little except to cite state law. The proposed General Plan says, “Ensure extraction and processing of mineral resources and aggregate deposits may continue. Encourage extraction and processing of mineral and aggregate resources” (page E-29, Economic Development Element). The Mineral Resources Zone map of this same plan, page 15 of the Conservation Element, shows vast resources and clearly delineates the mother lode. Yet the Housing Element, already passed by the Board of Supervisors as a required separate item, shows home sites atop possible gold mines between Sutter Creek and Amador City on page 51. Our usually scrupulously detailed DEIR appears to neglected mineral resources when it fits into their designs to compact our population.

Part of the reason for this is the overriding fear of global warming caused by greenhouse gases. This absolute fraud, enshrined in state law, consumes pages 2-30 to 33.  Many of the migration measures only make sense, if at all, in large cities. Call it their expensive cookie cutter approach or something more deliberate, but the DEIR has us as invisible by exhibiting no appreciation for or respect of our rural way of life. Any masochist is free to read their list of restrictions. Rather than global warming I fear we have entered an intellectual ice age.

Copyright 2015, Mark L Bennett