Madison and Jefferson’s personal agenda was to protect the slave-based plantation economy that had enriched them. They hid their self-interest by claiming that the Federalists desired a return to monarchy. The Federalists wanted a strong central government capable of repaying the war debt and establishing a unified nation. So even at the beginning of our nation, selfish personal interest has motivated political disputes.
A hidden agenda is motivating the political division within our community. A no-growth faction has aligned itself with environmentalism and coastal protection hiding its goal to stop growth. The no-growth faction here labels anyone who supports community improvements as “shills for developers.”
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The battleground for this hidden agenda is community infrastructure. In league with open space and environmental mega-interests, who often know little about local issues or community needs, the no-growth faction has manipulated every issue into a debate over the “growth inducing” impact of infrastructure improvements. The Beachwood flooding and illegal behavior of the city under the no-growth faction’s leadership became an argument over wetlands when it was really a matter of damaged property and Constitutional rights.
More than a decade ago, a group of parents banded together to win a bond election for the construction of the first new school in our community since 1963. In the ensuing decade the plans for the school were crushed by the concerted efforts of the no-growth, not-in-my-backyard, faction which aligned with environmentalists and open space advocates to hide the true agenda of preventing a new school from being built as it might be “growth inducing.”
The same faction tried to stop the renewal of the El Granada pipeline that has now been replaced with a larger pipeline required by current demand. The pipe size was claimed to be “growth inducing” with the hope that a smaller inadequate pipe would result in water and building bans. Today this same faction opposes paying the Beachwood property owner after the city flooded his property destroying its value. They want the city to go bankrupt to further cripple any prospect for future infrastructure improvements.
On the local sewer authority board, no-growth members are attempting to limit water recycling. Recycling can expand and protect our water supply. The prospect of an appropriately sized water-recycling project might be “growth inducing” thus threatening their no-growth agenda.
The no-growth faction opposes the Big Wave Project. Big Wave is a project sponsored by a large group of community members with cognitively disabled family members who are trying to build a secure “live and work” future for their disabled children. Big Wave is opposed by the no-growth faction because it might induce growth in our community by providing new employment opportunities here.
The no-growth faction’s solution to the wet weather sewer problem is designed to be inadequate. They will use sewer money to purchase open space under which they say they will bury a holding tank that is already known to be to small to fix the problem. By depleting capital improvement funds for an unnecessary land purchase they will assure that it will be years before the community again will have the capital to fix the sewer problem.
The California Coastal Commission’s staff rewrite of a new Local Coastal Program for our community totally disregards years of community effort to update our LCP. The staff version is completely in line with the no-growth agenda. This last minute rewrite, provided two years after the county submitted its version, attests to the backroom politics and alliances crafted over many years between the NIMBY no-growth faction and the open space and environmental special interests that has banded together in a mistaken common cause. This attempt to put crippling limits on infrastructure will not preserve the coast.
The hidden agenda promoted by Madison and Jefferson to protect the South’s plantation economy culminated in the Civil War. No-growth politics here will culminate in turmoil and hard feeling in our community in addition to many years of unfulfilled needs for our children, commuters and families. We will have a paucity of public services and infrastructure that will cost more to operate, be expensive to improve, and that will ultimately harm the environment by being inadequate. Protecting the environment, preserving open space outside the urban boundary, constraining the urban boundary, protecting the coast are all admirable goals supported by the vast majority of people in our community. So are the requirements for adequate public infrastructure.
Limiting highways creating commuter traffic jams, pseudo parks instead of real parks, remodeling old schools instead of adding new ones, inadequate public water and sewer infrastructure will indeed impact growth here. These impacts are not likely to limit growth; instead they will diminish the quality of our community. In November, voters will have an opportunity to speak out and make an important choice for our future. Let’s reject hidden agendas.
Jim Larimer is a Miramar resident and a member of the Coastside County Water District board of directors.
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