I am not against NIMBYism, per se. For you non-acronym-speakers in the audience, NIMBY stands for “Not In My Backyard,” which sums up the sentiment of someone who doesn’t want the signs of progress or development to appear near their homes, even if they realize that such signs need to go somewhere.
Home, in this case, is used in the broad sense.
A NIMBY believes in solar power, for instance, but doesn’t want large arrays built on nearby open space. The words “quality of life” and “mine” and “property value” and “me” and “I” and “no” come up a lot in a NIMBY adherent’s vocabulary. And I get that. I do.
Very few people, I think, set out to be NIMBY militants. That’s because, relative to the total population, very few people have, say, cell phone towers going up near their houses. You don’t think about talking to local leaders about keeping something out of your yard until they try to put something into your yard.
I bring up cell phone towers because Verizon wants to put up a tree-shaped one in Orcutt, and people who would see it every day don’t want to have to see it every day. This select group showed up to a Santa Barbara County Planning Commission meeting and voiced their variety of concerns with getting a new, 80-foot neighbor that aims to look like a eucalyptus tree, but fools no one.
Again, this makes sense to me. Pretty much everyone’s all for the greater good, until their own good is lessened. “Tough break,” the rest of us say, sighing and shaking our head. “But get over it. I mean, where else is it supposed to go? My backyard?”
I think we’re all NIMBY-leaning creatures at heart, which is why I envy no one in the permitting and approval process their jobs. People who live near the proposed cell tower site don’t want the tower there, but people who want better cell service in the area won’t get it without the construction.
Which is more important? Preserving a view available to some select homes? Or filling in gaps in data service for phone users in a larger (but still select) area?
This fight echoes a cell-tower-based fight in Lompoc from 2014, which doesn’t bode well for the No Tower camp. That standoff ended with a favorable nod for the tower, not the backyards in question.
And that’s my point: The greater need tends to triumph.
Which is why you should hug the NIMBYists in your life today. They’re probably having a rough time, bearing the burden of what’s best for the rest of us.
Hug them. Hug them tight. And remember: You, too, will someday be needing that hug.
The Canary has no backyard. The world is her backyard. Send comments and property disputes to canary@santamaria.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2015.