Monday, December 10, 2012

Danville Tea Party Meeting: When and Where?

Gentle Readers east and west, I owe all of you an apology. I did not consciously plan to copy an e-mail about a meeting in a town called Danville and paste it into a draft just before the timer on the public-access computer shut down. I thought I was pasting a link to something else I wanted to check out, after the computer restarted. And I didn't tell the computer to publish it. I didn't have permission to publish it and apologized to the sender for letting it be seen at all. Nevertheless, here is what went public last week...in fine print, so those who don't really want to read the whole thing can scroll past it. (Those who do want to read the whole thing should be able to use CTRL-+ to enlarge it.)

"I am sending out a reminder that the Danville 2030 Draft General Plan and SAP Planning Commission meeting will be held on;

When: Dec 11th at 7:30pm

Where: Danville Community Center – next to the library

420 Front Street

Vote in the On Line Poll at Halfway to Concord. The question is Should ABAG be abolished??? Vote YES!!! http://www.halfwaytoconcord.com

We need another BIG turnout! We will be protesting out in front starting at 6:30pm. If you want to come early and protest with us that would be great. If not, just stop by and get a sign to hold up during the meeting. We will have signs for everyone to hold up with different slogans. We need to have everyone hold them up during the meeting so that the Planning Commission gets a clear visual message of our opposition to ABAG, stack and pack housing, low income redistribution and the One Bay Area plan. Feel free to make your own signs.

This is a 20 year plan that will FOREVER change Danville! The entire town of Danville has been designated as a PDA (Priority Development Area) by the former council and approved by ABAG. This designation puts a bullseye on our town for redevelopment. Over the next 20 to 30 years the entire downtown will be rezoned to allow high density stack and pack housing at a minimum of 20+ units per acre. Many of these units will be designated as affordable units, which ranges from very low, low to moderate income based tax payer subsidized housing. The town planners and council will tell you that NOTHING will change the look and feel of our town, but that is a lie!!! Once this plan goes through and they adopt the One Bay Area Sustainable communities strategy which is a regional blue print from ABAG we will be forced to follow the plan or we; 1. ABAG will withhold transportation dollars from us and 2. We will get sued by Social Justice groups to force very low and low income housing into our communities! Do NOT be fooled. The city will rezone. This cycle they are only rezoning 10 acres, but every 8 years they will have to find areas within the PDA to accommodate more high density housing and they will rezone more. So you see, the transformation will happen over time and by the time people start objecting it will be too late. As citizens of Danville you MUST Stop the PDA designation of your town and the adoption of these zoning plans before this 2030 plan is in place. If not, you probably won’t be able to stop this train. Get your friends to come and oppose this.

If you cannot attend the meeting, but would like to object to the urbanization of Danville please send your comments to Kevin Gailey, Chief of Planning at kgailey@danville.ca.gov.

If you want to comment at the meeting make sure you do the following: When you go into the meeting grab a comment card. Fill it out with your name and Danville Resident. You DO NOT have to specify your address. Technically you don’t even have to tell them your name, but you need to put something down so that they will call you to speak. Then give it to the clerk at the front of the meeting. There is a public comment period at the beginning of the meeting. Anyone who wishes to speak on any topic not covered on the Agenda can speak then. You can also speak at both the public comment and the agendized portion of the meeting. Typically you have three minutes. If you need more ask someone to loan you there minutes. If you do not turn in a card you can still speak. After everyone has been called who turned in a form just stand up and say you would like to speak. They have to let you speak. They CANNOT deny you a chance to be heard. It is so important to speak up at these meetings! If you come and do not want to speak please hold a sign up during the meeting. What we need to do is show a forceful overwhelming opposition to their plan. If Alamo residents want to come they can just hold signs in the crowd. We need all the help we can get to stop this. The people of Alamo will be negatively impacted with increased traffic and through our shared school system by all of this. Thank you and pass this on to your friends.

Here are just some of the items you can comment on. The draft 2030 Plan, SAP and EIR are available to review at: www.danville.ca.gov/planning

Ask City Council and Planning Commission to do the following re: Danville 2030 Plan, SAP (Sustainable Action Plan) and the EIR:

1. Remove the ABAG PDA (Priority Development Area) designation from the town of Danville because Danville is not TPP (Transit Priority Project) eligible. PDAs are and TPPs are defined in SB375 as being within ½ mile of a major transit hub or major transit corridor, which Danville clearly is NOT.

2. Cancel Danville’s membership with ABAG. Since cities are not obligated in any way to belong to this regional COG we are asking Danville to cancel it’s membership and stop paying dues to this unelected, unaccountable agency. We want local control!

3. Remove all specifications of the One Bay Area plan and EIR from the Danville 2030 Draft Plan, EIR and SAP as the One/Plan Bay Area is not complete, certified and has not gone through the EIR process or been adopted by the Regional COG. SB375, page 2 clearly states that local municipalities do not have to comply and our general plans DO NOT have to be consistent in any way. The town of Danville is being irresponsible by adding un-adopted and unnecessary policies into a 20 year general plan.

4. Get your town to cancel its membership with ICLEI and stop paying dues to this International NGO.

5. We want local control. We do not want unelected, unaccountable bodies like ABAG dictating how and where we will live in the future.

6. We do NOT want to be forced to have high density housing and subsidized low and very low income housing in our community. We want to make our own decisions.

7. Adding high density housing to Danville will severely impact the quality of life of the current residents; increased traffic, congestion.

8. There is NO provision in this plan for mitigating the impacts on air quality when adding hundreds of units downtown.

9. Where is the financial analysis on the impact to our schools, safety and fire?

10. SB375 clearly states that our local plan does not have to be consistent so why are we incorporating an incomplete and un-adopted plan?"

As those who read the whole thing will notice, although the comments are things many Tea Partiers might say in town meetings, the time, date, and agenda obviously relate to a town called Danville in California.

I didn't even know there was a Danville in California, so it surprised me that this e-mail came from California. There is a Danville in Virginia, which is also the home of an active Tea Party...and their meeting will be this afternoon:

"There will be a Tea Party meeting in Danville at Mary's Diner, 1203 Piney Forest Road, Monday evening, December 10th, 7:00PM. Come early, have dinner, then join us upstairs.

Please bring a friend.... Looking forward to seeing you.



Darriel Burnett

Chairman, Danville TEA Party

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson Virginia Tea Party Patriots www.virginiateapartypatriots.com Danville Patriots http://danvillepatriots.com/ "
 
Although I won't be in either Danville in time for either meeting, conservative readers in both towns are invited to mingle with other people who think we're Taxed Enough Already. More is better.

No comments:

Post a Comment