It was a ‘Hot Time in the Old Town’ last Monday. Our City Council voted unanimously to submit the newly brokered development agreement to the public for vote in November. Getting to the vote involved listening for several hours to all the cries and complaints and accusations of a noisy minority. This small minority, whether out of loss of power or petulance, seemed intent to deep six the new agreement.
The council, unlike councils in the past, has tried to make this whole renegotiation open to the public. As they kept saying, “No secret meetings.” The downside of that noble gesture has been that the vocal minority asks questions that can’t yet be answered at each stage of the negotiation and takes that ignorance as a platform for opposition. And when it came together and negotiations were over, the minority demands were for more time to study. The council room rang with hyperbole. “This council is breaking the law!” “We need more time to study this!” “The Council is rushing this through so it doesn’t come next April at the council election time!” “This council will go to jail!” “Let’s get it right!” “We’ll make sure you get re-elected!”
So what is going on? This negotiation will be submitted to the voters in November. It is an agreement to buy the Chili Cook-Off property of 19 acres for $25 million, create a park and a city treatment plant to handle to tertiary degree all the commercial wastewater of the Civic Center, and create a funded urgent care center in a new building built to handle it. The rest of the agreement provides money for parks and secures the riders and ropers trails in Trancas. Although the Point Dume Land won’t be ours, the MBC will build a 5,000-square-foot community center.
Our citizens are very intelligent, something the minority forgets. Each citizen needs to look over this agreement and study it carefully and then vote. If it passes, the agreement then has to be approved by the Coastal Commission and withstand any lawsuits the minority will bring against it. We are a long way from seeing this dream come true. And at any point it can fail or succeed.
Georgianna McBurney