Regarding the Feb. 17 commentary by Doug Jenzen (“Stop paving paradise”):
His three primary topics: 1) How poorly the Old Town neighborhood looks because of lack of planning. 2) Development is creating traffic jams, which in turn are creating the need for new roads for circulation because supervisors and developers have done “what they’ve pleased.” And 3) the county and developers prefer to ignore our history and heritage.
I’ve lived in this area for 12 years and have been very active in the local political arena. Here is what I know: There are many, many hard-working volunteers who sit for countless hours in committees, subcommittees, advisory councils, watchdog environmental groups, and the like in order to make sure that, as we continue to grow, we do so with foresight and the growth is as well thought out as we can make it. We spend hours sitting at the Board of Supervisors meetings to share our points of view. We spend more countless hours educating ourselves about the rules and regulations about land use, planning, and traffic and circulation.
1) Yes, the Old Town area has seen better days, and we know that, which is why Old Town has a current design for improvements. There is even an Old Town Committee, which has had numerous fundraisers and has created the design and plan for Old Town. This has been through the county planning approval processes and was ready to start development until the current economy drove projects to a stop. The plan included two new mixed-use business developments for the corners of Tefft and Thompson, cornerstones for bringing in more business to that end of town. The water issues have stopped most new development because the cost of the “will serve” letters from the Nipomo Community Services District is astronomical as it seeks a way to pay for the water pipeline from Santa Maria.
On the other side of the freeway on Tefft, there is even a design plan for how that is to look once new businesses start to be built again. That design plan took about three years for folks to agree on and many, many, many meetings.
2) Traffic: The plans for dealing with circulation and how to move people are a huge issue. The space in this column doesn’t allow for all the details. Suffice it to say, there is much interface with SLOCOG, County Public Works, and Cal Trans to find money and draw on as much consensus with residents, businesses, and schools in order to put roads in. The discussion about what to do about the oak trees has been brought up many times with the Land Conservancy, and it is an issue. The traffic and circulation group meets the third week of every month. If you want to put the oak trees back on the agenda for you to discuss, please call me and I will put you in touch with the chair of that committee.
The other three routes you discuss as alternatives to building an overpass to the high school have also been subject of 10 years of meetings. With more than 1,000 students, Nipomo High School does not have “a very small student population.” Two of the “three perfectly good routes” to Nipomo High School require an eight-mile detour from the Tefft freeway crossing. That is why the hundreds of cars crossing Tefft and jamming it twice a day will soon use the Willow Road route. You may vent your comments when you attend the traffic and circulation meeting or a South County Advisory Meeting.
3) The importance of history and saving our special places: We are taking care of that. There have been so many volunteers and groups who have gotten together to make sure the Dana Adobe becomes a park. The Dana Adobe is proof positive that Nipomo cherishes its heritage and special places. In the last 10 years, the Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos has successfully obtained, facilitated, and administered more than $5 million of capital improvements, including property acquisitions, adobe restoration, and land restoration. This has only been possible with passionate community involvement and partnerships with SLO County, the Land Conservancy, and Save the Mesa, to name a few. DANA has successfully provided maintenance, operations, and educational programs to thousands of visitors from all ages. We care—come and see for yourself!
As local residents, we recognize that another one of our “special places” is actually the open space we do have, and we do use forward thinking to preserve these areas for passive recreation. Save the Mesa gave the Land Conservancy $179,000, which they were able to turn into $5 million in grants in order to help purchase the land around the Dana Adobe. Land was also purchased at the back end of Black Lake (Callender/Garret area off of Highway 1) so an equestrian area could be set up and a rear entrance into the park in Black Lake would become a reality.
Marianne Buckmeyer is former chair of the traffic and circulation committee/SCAC and former president of Save the Mesa. Send comments to the opinion editor at econnolly@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 3, 2011.
