About 70 people attended the Board of Supervisors special meeting on Tuesday night. to hear public input on the proposed zoning change on John Smith Road for the proposed Resource Recovery Park.
A group of concerned citizens hired legal counsel Christine Kemp, with the law firm Noland, Hamerly, Etienne & Hoss, to investigate their concerns with the proposed zone change and to advise them of their options in opposing the re-zoning.
When asked why the group had hired an attorney, Sally Silva said,
“We have been asking questions and opposing this project for 4 years and not getting any SPECIFIC answers. We decided to get legal counsel to advise us on what our options were.”
“The Supervisors re-opened the public hearing portion of the meeting of February 4th to get answers to the questions they had posed to staff on the EIR and concerns that we had brought up.”
She said, “It appears that they did not consider our additional concerns as they passed the ordinance as written without any discussion of those concerns.”
“The majority of the Board had their minds made up to pass the ordinance, they had no intention of considering our concerns. They will continue to solicit businesses, or sell the site to increase revenue.”
“I think the public should know that the residents in our group were definitely NOT against recycling. We just felt that this was not the correct site. The Supervisors failed to recognize that this was not a group of people from ‘just John Smith Rd’. There were 100 people coming to meetings off and on from all over the county. This project will have a negative effect on the roads, air and water quality for the whole county. The public should also know that this is not going to be a little Mom and Pop recycling center. The county could sell or rent to a very large business for plastic recycling, bio-diesel or some other single use. The EIR is very non-specific so at this point in time no one knows what will go into the site, what negative impacts will be created, what the project will cost and what return on investment will be made.”
District Four Supervisor Jerry Muenzer, who with District 5 Supervisor, Jaime De La Cruz, voted against the zone change, told BenitoLink,
“First let me say that I want to thank all of the people who were there last night and all of the people that have been involved in this long process. As I stated last night, I believe that the county needs to develop a resource recovery park, just not at the John Smith Road site. This project was already started when I took office. I have spent the last 3+years studying it and listening to the concern citizens, some who lived on Shore Rd. and some on Hillcrest Rd and many in the neighborhood of the project. They all felt that it was a good project, just a bad location. I have come to the same conclusion. As I stated last night there are many issues with that site; from the lack of infrastructure, to the impact of the quality of life for the neighbors, to the long term viability. I feel that the county should be putting its effort into collaborating with the City Of Hollister and/or the City of San Juan to find a site better suited, which will give any new business a better chance of succeeding.”
Muenzer made a motion to create an overlay for the RRP which would not be attached to locating on John Smith Road, but his motion was defeated, 2 to 3.
District Two Supervisor Anthony Botelho then moved and voted in favor of the zoning change, with District One Supervisor Margie Barrios and District Three Supervisor, Robert Rivas’s votes carrying the motion.
Supervisor Bothelo gave this statement to BenitoLink in response to two questions:
1. Is there anything you would like people to know, or consider about the project, or about the process?
2. What do you see as the desirable outcome of the project?
“First, the County (the Board of Supervisors and Staff) are very sensitive to the concerns that folks that live in that area have expressed for this zone change. The 30 acre zoning at John Smith Landfill took an extra effort by the County to safeguard and take into account of uses in the area that seemed to be particularly objectable to residents. We do want the County owned landfill to be good neighbors. With that said, I strongly believe that the Resource Recovery Park is an asset not only to the County, but more importantly to all its citizens.”
“It is in the interest of San Benito County to operate the Landfill to its highest optimal efficiency. We are fortunate that the County has a landfill that has a surplus of land and with an estimated longevity of the landfill that is better than 60 years. We have an obligation to keep landfill costs affordable and be as convenient as possible to our customers. Our County along with the contracted operator (Waste Management) are obligated to comply with regulations in the operation of this landfill. Regulations and requirements of operation of the landfill have been increasing through the years and are very costly for a small County. Additionally, The State requires waste diversion to increase for our households. Our rates and garbage pick-up is moderate in costs for the region, but we do have our fair share of citizens that are on fixed or lower incomes that struggle.”
“So the simple answer to the first question from my perspective is that this is an extension of the mission to encourage waste diversion from being just buried under dirt to reused in some form. The location is perfect and its convenient to people already using the landfill. As our county has always struggled to attract new businesses (which is due to lack of zoning and incentives) to give opportunity for gainful employment to people who live here. This effort is to create economic development through public and private partnership for this particular project, with the focus on environmental friendly businesses. And best of all, added revenue for the County to contain costs of the landfill and possibly a source of revenue to our general fund. Honestly, the RRP was only one component of the effort to accomplish this seven years ago when Supervisor Loe and myself worked together on the Integrated Waste Management Committee and brought this forward to the Board of Supervisors.”
“The desirable outcome of the project is to have a couple of successful environmentally friendly businesses be establish in the RRP bringing a consistent revenue to the County and providing some good paying jobs for our residents. I will not be content unless a few people in the future that initially oppose this project stop me and say the County actually did a good job in listening and took into account what they needed for their neighborhood to protect and enhance their quality of life. Currently, we have had “interest” from a couple of potential businesses that would be a great fit for our County and I remain optimistic of the potential of the newly zoned area. Of course, it has been made very clear that there is a public process, and another environmental review of whatever potential business that may apply for this area.”
Leslie David’s Three Part series of articles on the Resource Recovery Park for BenitoLink.