Well, folks, it looks like we’re going to have a roundabout at Hermosa and Westwood, no matter what. No matter that 800+ people signed a petition against it back in January, no matter that a study of what might be done at Lincoln School to reduce traffic congestion has not yet been completed. No matter that anyone in town who hears about the proposal says “What? Not again!”
At the last city council meeting
April 24th, I filed a complaint called a “cure and correct” notice
about the public hearing April 10th when the project was
approved. The public hearing had not
been identified as such on the council agenda, which was simply noted as a
“site plan review.” For those with long years
of experience fighting development projects and surreptitious planning
departments, that might have been a red flag.
But for members of the general public, the word “review” sounds like
just another discussion.
In my complaint I claimed there had
not been proper public notice. Technically
I was mistaken. I missed the notice
published March 24th in the Porterville Recorder, which I don’t
subscribe to or read, and I missed the copy of that legal notice in the agenda
packet as well. The city met the minimum
legal requirement of notice, but whether or not the spirit of the law has been
met is another matter.
At the April 10th meeting
we didn’t get a public hearing, we got a kangaroo court. The city manager did not offer an apology or
explanation of why the item hadn’t been identified as a public hearing on the
agenda. He simply jumped up from his
chair, declared that it was a public hearing, took over the discussion of the
site plan review from Brian Spaunhurst, the assistant city planner who was
scheduled to present it, and then raced through the discussion like it was a
done deal. And when it was followed by
no discussion from the council whatsoever, it clearly was.
During the public hearing, where I
was the only one present to speak either for or against the project, I pointed
out that no other member of the public was there. Not one of the people who signed the
petition, not one of the property owners who will be impacted, not one of the
parents of Lincoln School students who are concerned about how their children
will be escorted safely through the crosswalks of a traffic device intended to
keep cars and trucks from having to stop.
Not one. When I called one of the
organizers to find out why no one showed, she said no, she hadn’t seen the
notice, either, but she hadn’t been able to attend more meetings, and figured
they were going to do what they wanted anyway.
And of course, she was right.
There’s a lack of integrity in the
planning process in Lindsay. If we had a
planning commission like every other little town in this region, there would be
more time for public input and education about what they’re trying to build
here with public funds. But without that
forum, it’s even more important that the public planning process is done right,
in the spirit as well as the letter of the law mandating that process. Let us begin with a reconsideration of the
Hermosa/Westwood roundabout.
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Trudy
Wischemann is a former student of environmental planning who lives appalled in
Lindsay. You can send her your ideas for
improvement c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a
comment below.
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