Pacifica Climate Action Plan Study with a twist

Pacifica Tribune, Letters to the Editor, 8/14/12.  "Climate Action Plan Study Session" by Frank Vella

"Editor: I attended the Climate Action Plan Study Session held on Aug. 1, 2012. This meeting was a review of the Draft City of Pacifica Climate Action Plan Project. This group of nine people apparently are in the process of outlining how Pacifica should move forward to enact standards that are even stricter than state and federal guidelines for the entire 40,000 of us in the city. Ian Butler and Sam Casillas were two of the proponents of this group who thanked the members of the plan for their courage and efforts to bring the important issue of Green House Gases to the consideration of Pacifica.

Sierra Club. etc. are against quarry development

Chris Porter reviewed the many accomplishments of Recology in improving the efficiencies of Pacifica's garbage collection services and the many goals that Recology has made already without new city requirements.

 I am certain that all the members of the committee and the city council members on the board in 2010 who created this committee (Vreeland, Nihart, DeJarnatt, Digre, and Lancelle) were genuine in their intent on putting this committee together. This committee was set to automatically sunset on 12-31-2010 as stated in their own report.

At the meeting we heard all the canned reasons about going forward, "it's the right thing to do," "if not now, when," "global warming is happening, it is a fact cited by many scientists," etc. This report is estimating that our emissions grew at the same rate from 1990 to 2005 as did California as a whole. Pacifica's population has decreased so this comparison does not appear to be a good gauge at all.

Sierra Club is against fixing the highway 1 bottleneck

Things that the report suggest you can do; Change your commute — not too easy for 95 percent of the population who travels out of Pacifica from the only few routes we have. Reduce your air travel — how many residents frequently fly for work, family visits and vacations? Eat less meat, Round Table just closed so no more meat lover's pizza for us. Ride your bike? Did anyone who attended that meeting arrive on a bicycle? Doubtful.

The time and effort of people who are concerned and are doing something about issues dear to them are definitely commendable. The time spent by our city council and city services on this is not well spent. We do not have the resources for this. Let's stick with any State and Federal laws and concentrate on items that will help Pacifica sustain its own existence as a city.

One of the items suggested is to create areas where people can live, work and commute from a centralized location. Sounds like a sales pitch for development at the Quarry, in fact it sounds like the Peeble's plan — 2/3rds open space, commercial development and residential is just what they are talking about. Do we really want to show that Pacifica can lead the way for smart development? I did not realize that this committee was going to push for developments like the Peebles project. How about that!"  *****

Related - The Loma Prieta, Sierra Club, August 2009.  Resolution against quarry development:  WHEREAS the Pacifica quarry is home to a vibrant wetland habitat which includes an endangered species: the San Francisco garter snake, and a threatened species the red-legged frog; and WHEREAS the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club has consistently opposed development proposals onthis site; and WHEREAS the California Coastal Commission has established 300' setbacks from Calera Creek (c.f. California Coastal Commission finding; F5a-7-2008, pgs 13 and 14) and adopted the findings contained in the Swaim report (c.f. Status of the San Francisco Garter Snake at Pacifica Quarry, San Mateo, California, pg 26) for the purpose of habitat conservation to sustain and enhance the existence of both an endangered species and a threatened species; LET IT BE RESOLVED that the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club supports continued recognition and protection of the land form known as the Pacifica Quarry as containing significant functional environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA).

Related -  The Loma Prietan newsletter, January/February, 2012. (Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter (serving San Benito, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, California).  "The Calera Parkway proposal calls for a 1.3-mile stretch of Highway 1 in Pacifica to be widened from four lanes to six. The Chapter has made its opposition clear. We wrote to the San Mateo County Transportation Authority in 2010. We also expressed our reservations when we questioned Pacifica City Council candidates during our 2010 election endorsement process."

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Posted by Kathy Meeh