Press Release reply to 28 feb hearing
Written March 1st, 2023
Before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, maybe we should think about who or what the baby really is. And then, we should take off that stinky diaper and find a fresh one so the baby isn’t sitting in its own poop and can maybe be comfortable for a minute.
Our county commissioners have heard the rumblings of the roused rabble, and opened up more accessible time and space for a public hearing – a time in which they can listen to the concerns and desires of constituents, of the residents of this county, and respond accordingly.
The overwhelming note of the evening was asking them to stop any update on this land use code, to repeal the existing code adopted in 2021, and to include copious citizen input in the creation of a simple and effective land use handbook that could be put up to a public vote. While they did unanimously reject the certified copy as amended on February 8 by the Planning Commission, they went right back to work the next day, trying to make the original pile of steaming turds more palatable.
The planning director has been asked to produce a new redline revision of the 2021 land use code based on community and commissioner input of the 2022/2023 update by March 9. The BOCC announced the next public hearing would be held on April 11, less than a month and a half away.
The original LUC was adopted in January 2021. A “certified copy” was presented November 16, 2022, 22 months later. Now, we’re supposed to accept a new amended and updated version of the 2021 LUC that is produced by the director himself in barely a week, with scarcely over a month for the Planning Commission to review and debate it? Isn’t the whole land use code supposed to BE WRITTEN BY THE PLANNING COMMISSION? And not the director?
The people asked the BoCC to STOP the update of the land use code and move forward with specific citizen input, but apparently it’s all in the hands of Carl, the director from California. At this point, he can’t run away from where he came from – everybody knows, and nobody likes it. If he were just here to retire, to be a farmer, to work this land and love this place, it would be an entirely different story. But he is here trying to do the same job he did for three decades in California, and that is what rubs people wrong.
By asking the BoCC to stop the update, we really meant to stop all the updating. To stop, take a breath, let the people breathe for a minute, then let them put in their input on this onerous document.
It is absolutely unconscionable for the county commissioners to dive right back into the hot mess of words we asked them to stop working on without taking a break from it, without gathering people into new work sessions, and without stepping back to take a broader look.
The message Tuesday night was loud and clear. Only two people out of the 80 or so who spoke seemed to support land use codes, and one was oddly both for them and against them at the same time. And of all the others who eloquently denounced this current process and product, most of them asked for a code that is written by we the people, a simple code we can accept and live with.
The commissioners seem to be afraid of repealing the 2021 LUC because what existed before was too onerous and too unpredictable (for high impact commercial and industrial activities at least). They don’t want to repeal it because “they” have spent so much money on the whole process of developing it. Though a few hundred grand of the half million plus dollars so far spent on this land use code came from grants, the rest (all, if you include taxpayer funded grants) came from taxpayers. We, the citizens of Delta County, paid for this code through the taxes that are wrung from us every day, every time we buy something in this county. It’s way more than just property taxes that fund our county government.
We paid for this piece of garbage code and we are seriously suffering from buyer’s remorse – mostly because we didn’t know we had bought it. We do not want what is on the table. We do want a gentle code. We do want commercial and industrial regulation. But we do not want 200 pages of incomprehensible imported legalese that the average citizen cannot tolerate reading, let alone easily understand. We want 25 pages max. Twenty would be even better. We can do it! Editors rule!
Yes, the commissioners have spent a lot of time and a lot of our money on this code, but it does more service to “other entities” than it does to the people who live here now and want to live here until we die, and leave a land that will continue to be stewarding and nourished and harvested and planted for generations after our bodies have returned to the dirt.
It’s okay to start over. Not every painting is perfect at the first try. Not every house starts out right. There is not a single book that was created on the first go. Sometimes we have to burn it all down and build a new foundation.
And please remember, Commissioners, you’re not alone anymore. The people here and willing to do a bunch of this work. It would be great if we go paid too, but hey, freedom isn’t free, we gotta fight for it.
