Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009
The people of this county do not owe developers anything.
We don’t “owe” them a zone change. And we certainly don’t “owe” them a profit.
I don’t understand why that’s such a difficult concept for some people to wrap their heads around — particularly a few members of the County Planning Commission and Kern County Board of Supervisors.
Our government agents are supposed to make sure development is safe, compatible, needed and in compliance with all local, state and federal laws. Period. Making sure Joe Bob Developer gets his percentage isn’t part of the deal.
Most recently, Planning Commissioner Ron Sprague about turned himself inside out trying to get his fellow commissioners to either approve the controversial 846-acre Frazier Park Estates project or speed up the process to benefit the developer, Frank Arciero Jr.
Sprague was concerned that it would not be profitable for the developer to do what Planning Department staff had recommended — cut more than 470 homes (from the 662 sought by the developer) that would have been strung along hillsides so steep they would require massive grading and cut-and-fill operations not allowed under the county’s hillside ordinance.
Staff also recommended the commercial and multifamily parts of the project go forward. The vote was split 2-2 with one commissioner absent. It will come back to the commission Oct. 8.
To Sprague’s concern for the developer’s profit, I have only this to say: So?
That’s Arciero’s business, not Sprague’s.
Sprague also was concerned that this development was seven years in the making and has cost developers $6 million so far.
Again, so?
That’s the nature of the beast when it comes to massive projects in sensitive areas with steep hillsides, canyons and, oh, by the way, with the San Andreas fault as a next-door neighbor.
If Sprague is so worried about Arciero’s paycheck, maybe he can find him a job.
But when a public official — appointed or elected — is doing the people’s business, he should be more concerned about issues related to the project. In this case, county planning staff compiled a laundry list of problems, including water, traffic, severe grading and cut-and-fill, road maintenance and lack of compatibility with an already existing development plan for that area.
As an aside, it was unbelievable to me that Arciero’s representative, Mike Callegy, would complain his people didn’t know about the county’s hillside ordinance, which prohibits construction on slopes at a 30 percent grade and cuts of more than 16 feet. Some cuts in the Frazier Park Estates proposal were 160 feet.
The hillside ordinance wasn’t added to the Frazier Park/Lebec Specific Plan until after the project design was underway, Callegy all but whined at the Planning Commission meeting last month.
Oh puhleeze! That ordinance was adopted in 1986.
This isn’t the first time in recent memory that I’ve been appalled by a public official who seemed more absorbed by a developer’s bottom line than the public interest.
Supervisor Ray Watson (who appointed Sprague, by the way) made an impassioned plea for a leapfrog development proposed in northwest Bakersfield, the Neighborhood Development LLC. It was voted down last month by three other supervisors who appropriately saw it as premature.
Watson’s reason for supporting it was that the developer had gone through such a long process getting to this stage that the project ought to be approved.
Arrrgh!
Bad development is still bad development, no matter how long it ferments.
Maybe if developers knew they actually had to pay attention to Planning staff, development ordinances, specific plans and area residents, they wouldn’t always go for the “Kern County wishbone” play instead. (That’s where they get their project in front of politically sensitive officials to get their go-ahead.)
It’s up to those politically sensitive types to make that happen, though. And judging by Watson’s and Sprague’s recent behavior, I don’t have a lot of hope.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com
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