First off let me state the best thing anyone can do for themselves is get away every so often. It is on this advice that I base my comments today. You see, getting away allows one to look at things from a completely different perspective, to be away from the trees and see the forest as it were.
So, as I return from a beautiful week deep in the Colorado Mountains I can share the lessons learned here that we all need to remember in Marina. It is my opinion that some of the best environmental policies in the country come from Colorado. It is Colorado that has found a way to incorporate the need for economic development and environmental policies to the success of both. It is also Colorado that voted down an Olympic bid because they felt it would be too devastating to the economy and environment several years ago.
It’s with this backdrop that I revisit the State of my younger years and see that, while so much has changed, the state has remained true to itself. What were small town ski areas 30 years ago are booming economic centers year round today. To drive up highway 70 past towns such as Georgetown, Vail, Avon and Edwards you barely see the development but it’s there. Even the huge self enclosed area of Beaver Creek is built right into the mountain in a way that looks almost natural.
Over the years thousands of acres of trees have been removed to accommodate this development but it has been done in a way that preserves thousands of additional acres of natural habitat and beautiful mountains.
Now let’s take a look at Marina and Ft. Ord. We see people trying to convince us that the economic redevelopment of Ft. Ord is some great sin imposed on our environment. Never mind the fact that in most areas these lands have been scarred by decades of military use and any new development would actually repair much of the land and return the economics of our area to what it once was. In fact, that was the entire goal of the original Ft. Ord Reuse Plan. It was designed to replace the economic engine that the military was and do so while preserving thousands of acres of natural habitat.
There are those that want you to forget that part of the Ft. Ord Reuse Plan set aside an area slightly larger than the entire City of San Francisco as natural habitat. Areas that, still to this day, are being restored and managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
So yes, there will be development that changes the landscape in some areas. The ill fated Cypress Knolls project was one of them. It would have torn down all the blighted buildings on the property and restored the lands and developed a first class senior development that would be in tune with the goals of the Ft. Ord Reuse Plan.
There are other examples such as the Veterans Cemetery. Here we find opposition not in the concept but in the use of two entitlement parcels that will help fund the entire project. There are those that make a big public cry of support for the Cemetery but are trying like mad to stop the development parcels behind the scenes. To what end? It’s simply to stop all development at all costs without regard to the original goal.
My advice would be to take a trip, see what others are doing. Then come back and work together to replace the economic engines that will bring the jobs and housing markets back to our communities - to get off your high horse and see that our environment is being protected and has been from the beginning of this process.
More later
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