conservation issues in the Santa Margarita area.
Action Alert |
LEGAL ACTION
SMART is of the opinion that the County of San Luis Obispo has violated the settlement agreement of March 5, 2002 between the Ranch, SMART and the County of San Luis Obispo. SMART has filed a motion with the court to stay the processing of the FEIR until the County agrees to comply with the settlement and to meet with SMART to correctly determine the SCOPE of the RDEIR. Below is a link to our fund-raising letter which contains valuable background information. Donations are appreciated and essential for our work.
PLANNING COMMISSION
The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission is meeting on two dates to consider an application for 112 homes in an Oak studded rolling hill area of the Santa Margarita Ranch. As most of you know, the project has been assessed with an unprecedented 11 Class 1 impacts (significant and unavoidable).
It is the opinion of SMART that the County of SLO has failed to allow adequate public input into the process and is rushing the project so it can be heard by the current, pro-growth board. Below is a video link wherein the PC chair, Boo Roos, at the June 26, 2008 PC meeting, admits he is predisposed to act on the Ranch Sub-division before the new BOS is seated.
We urge residents to attend these meetings and request more time to review the hundreds of pages of reports on this project.
Dates:
July 7, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
July 24th, time to be announced.
Our friend, Anne McMahon has put together a flyer that explains some of the points of contention. McMahon Flyer
Roos, 6/28/08 video (wmv format, 164 KB)
SMAAC
The Santa Margarita Area Advisory Council is holding a Special meeting to debate the merits of the 112 home application. It is SMART's opinion that the SMAAC does not fairly represent the public in the Santa Margarita Area because the representation is disproportional to the population. The SMAAC has been closed to public input and does not follow it's own by-laws. It is within the Charter of SMART to protest this irresponsible behavior on the part of any elected body with even limited influence on land use policy.
The above not-withstanding, SMART feels obligated in inform it's members of an upcoming meeting of the SMAAC. It will be July 9th, 7:00 at the Santa Margarita Ranch Assistencia. See links below for the details.