By Emerson Drake
2/8/10
Modesto is facing a dilemma. On one hand the voters chose overwhelming (by 60-70%) to turn down all five annexation measures, but now the Mayor and City Council are engineering an end run.
After listening to a heart wrenching speech by a farmer whose family has been working the land within the Beckworth Triangle for more than 100 years pleading for City Planning
Commissioners to turn down the request to include his farm in Modesto’s sphere of influence, they choose to move forward anyway.
There are two lines coming from city planners that need to be remembered. The first is, “Once land is brought into the City’s sphere of influence development is inevitable” The second is “annexation is driven by developers”. These two lines were spoken by a member of the city’s planning staff.
Our developer driven (bought and paid for) City Council has discovered a way for the evil deed to be accomplished without them being held responsible.
They hope to steal 1000 acres for development while holding their usual jobs as the carrot to get the donkey (taxpayers) to pull the plow for them.Will there be any meaning full discussion? At this point it seems very doubtful.
Please remember there were 47 suggestions, complaints and comments at the November 18th public input meeting and none were taken into serious consideration.
They are planning to raise driveways on the best soil Stanislaus County has when it comes to the important recharging of ground water.
Our City Council has lied to us before and is preparing to do so again. Are we going to let them continue this highway robbery without a fight?
