This development would ruin forever the longstanding agricultural aspect of our North O’side culture. Our City Council should be focused upon “INFILL HOME CONSTRUCTION”, and not out in the Farmlands/Boonies tract home construction. “Infill” FYI refers to the development of vacant parcels within previously built areas; those areas already served by public infrastructure such as transportation, water, wastewater, and other utilities.
What a monumentally bad idea. The City Council proponents of this bad idea; Rodriguez, Feller and Weiss all need to be replaced asap. It is now become possible to vote two of them out of office in November to help silence the influence of this Developer, Integral Communities in our city. This is not the City Council’s city, it is our city, and they work for us at our pleasure. NOT the other way around, we do not work for them nor live here at their pleasure. Can it be that these three fellows do not understand this basic guiding principle of serving in an elected office. I ask you, can this be true?
According to an article published in The Coast News, a lawsuit alleging “egregious violations” of the California Elections Code and the California Political Reform Act was filed against the City Clerk, the Registrar of Voters, and petitioners who oppose the North River Farms project. It alleges the petitioners committed fraud, forgery and misrepresentation in the signature gathering process, withheld important information from signers, and conducted illegal political fundraising for the petition. Also according to that article, Mindy Wright, a spokesperson for the project developer Integral Communities has stated its support of the lawsuit.
IN fact, an effective and completely legal petition drive against this bad decision by Rodriguez, Feller, and Weiss was conducted by concerned citizens. That relatively small group, all of them regular everyday citizens of O’side, were able to gather some 12,600 signatures in less than 30 available days. They succeeded against all odds to force this issue onto the ballot as a Referendum measure come November.
And back at that time, these three City Council members had the opportunity to change their direction, but refused to withdraw their approval of this rezoning plan…..Amazingly, concerned citizens who were active in this Petition Campaign, and some elected Civil Servants, were at the time wrongly accused by Mayor Weiss of cheating he said by using a false signature to place his approval on that petition (what a dumb idea to even imagine).
Apparently he did not bother to check his facts to discover such an easily found truth; that another Peter Weiss signatory person lives in Oceanside. I ask you dear readers again; does this man think he is the only Peter Weiss in the world, or was he arrogant and hasty in making a snap decision in this matter? Was he grasping at straws to win the day against his adversary, and does he view WE THE PEOPLE as his adversaries, sheesh?
And how did Mayor Weiss even gain access to this information, sealed by the City Clerks office and guarded under lock and key. Information which was legally not to be viewed by anybody prior to certification by The Registrar of Voters for San Diego County. It makes a body wonder what’s going on Downtown. I ask you yet again……is it possible we have a situation of secret agenda driven and unfair dirty politics being practiced right here in little old O’side? I surely do hope not! Can we not trust ALL FIVE of our City Council folks to make unbiased decisions for the betterment of the WHOLE community, and not just support the BIG MONEY interests against our well stated community-wide best interests and the will of We The People?
A proper vote in November will serve to eliminate this egregiously poor decision by Rodriguez, Feller and Weiss to spot rezone the farmlands area. It will stop the Integral Communities Developer from building a housing tract into our farmlands, where no such housing development should be, or otherwise would be allowed.
Be careful how you vote in November my friends. Vote NO on NRF, lest our still lovely little city of O’side become a quagmire of dysfunctional developments in the wrong place, those farmlands are the wrong place.
We will not become another Orange County, smaller in size but even more crowded and with worse traffic nightmares than OC……..will we?
GROW crops, NOT shops!!
Richard Burton