Letters to the Editor, September 14th

Measure J Assumptions

September 14th, 2006 – Letters to the Editor – The Tribune 

To vote for Measure J, you would have to agree with these assumptions:

• The local residents of a city or town should not control the character of their own community. That should be done by people who don’t actually live there.

• Land use, planning and environmental laws should apply to everyone else but me.

• The best way to develop a large shopping center/hotel complex is build it first and deal with the problems it causes later.

• If a development causes traffic jams, smog or flooded roads, the developer should not be held responsible. The government should solve those problems and use tax money to pay the bill.

• If you don’t like the people who live in a certain community, use a countywide ballot initiative to “stick it to ’em.” That’s what it’s for.

Call me old-fashioned, but I still believe that no one should be above the law and that we should trust the local residents from Paso Robles to Nipomo and every city in between to determine the future of their own communities.

If you believe those principles are worth defending, vote “no” on Measure J.

Alan Thomas, San Luis Obispo

 

Dalidio Deserves a ‘NO’

September 14th, 2006 – Letters to the Editor – The Tribune 

According to a recent article in The Tribune, Dalidio spokesman Dave Cox believes the Measure J election will be all about fairness. He may be right.

Is it fair to the voters of San Luis Obispo, who have rejected a huge shopping center on Dalidio’s property, to have the whole county vote on it? Is it fair to have a developer decide unilaterally how much money he will contribute to solve the traffic mess his project will cause?

Is it fair to motorists throughout the county to have the Dalidio project soak up all the transportation funds countywide? Is it fair to other developers who follow the development rules to have Dalidio avoid environmental review, Planning Commission review and staff review of his project?

The only way to bring about fairness in this case is to vote “no” on Measure J.

Kent M. Taylor, San Luis Obispo