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It’s frustrating to watch people be fooled over and over by a group who uses scare tactics and trigger words to get people to vote how they want them to. Feel used yet? Read on.
The group behind Measure Q now call themselves Campaign to Protect San Benito, but they are really PORC (Preserve our Rural Communities).
The true story begins with Measure K.
Do you know what you voted for back then? Did you think you voted down big housing projects and high-rise hotels on Highway 101? Nope. Did you think you voted down four commercial areas being built? Nope, that wasn’t it either.
Measure K was not put on the ballot by Supervisors. It was pushed on the ballot through a referendum by PORC.
Here is what happened. In 2015 our General Plan was approved after several years of development. It included these small areas for commercial development, called nodes, across the county–for a gas station, general store or even motel to catch traffic commuting on our freeways and bring our county revenue. Now PORC was not happy four of these nodes were included on 101, near their homes.
Most of these PORC officers are retired, and live in Aromas. They don’t care about jobs since they are on pensions, or county services since they go to Santa Cruz for those. This NIMBY group set out to stop development at those nodes on 101. What’s a NIMBY group you ask? NIMBY stands for Not in My Backyard. That’s who PORC is. They don’t care about our county, our farmland, our rural community. They just want to stop development by their homes by any means necessary.
The nodes were already in the General Plan, so PORC could not stop that. The current zoning available for developers for those nodes was Commercial 1 (C1) and Commercial 2 (C2). The Supervisors decided to create a new type of zoning for those nodes, to keep them from being too overdeveloped. It was well written, limited size of buildings, that not too much land could be paved over, even had design requirements to make them blend into the countryside. The Supervisors approved this new zoning, called Commercial 3 (C3). This is where PORC saw its chance.
When Supervisors vote to approve something, a group can come in and get signatures to overturn the decision – if they get enough signatures it goes on the ballot. So PORC set out to overturn C3 zoning. But how to get people to go along? They created a campaign of lies. Told people the supervisors were going to allow giant housing projects at each node. Told people it would cause more traffic on Highway 25. Told them anything to get them to sign the petition and vote No on K. They even told the biggest lie of all–that voting down Measure K would stop the nodes on 101. The only thing they didn’t tell was the truth, that they didn’t want the nodes anywhere near them. The scheme worked. Measure K got voted down, so no C3 zoning. But it did not affect the commercial areas themselves. Developers had to choose between already existing zoning, C1 or C2. When one of the projects applied for C1 zoning, PORC cried foul, and tried to get it overturned in court. It was denied. People still scratch their heads about Measure K, wondering why the vote didn’t stop the nodes. (Hint, because you were lied to by PORC!) Feeling queasy yet? Just wait.
PORC was mad their ruse did not stop the nodes. But they had gained momentum from all their lies about housing and traffic. They also created a lot of distrust towards supervisors. So they used the tactics again with Measure N against Strada Verde. And they were joined by other groups with their own agendas against the project. Even some elected officials joined with PORC to push out a huge misinformation campaign. They claimed all kinds of things that were untrue, but again that same big lie–this was a massive housing project that would cause traffic on 25. People got so triggered they didn’t pay attention to facts, even when the county said there were no homes in the project. I mean, I get it. I’m unhappy with all of the housing going. But it makes me mad when a new business project with good jobs is brought down by dishonest people. In fact, today we have the Mayor of Hollister still swearing up and down a city is being built and massive housing and that there is no commercial project. What is his deal anyway?
But that leads us to Measure Q. PORC didn’t get what they wanted with Measure K, to get rid of the nodes by their homes. So they created this 38-page measure claiming it would protect all the farmland, stop evil developers and take power from bad supervisors. Once again, the big lie–this would stop housing growth and traffic once and for all. Are you still buying into it? Well, it is not true. The state has housing laws and we have to build a certain number of houses each year, this measure does not change that. So housing will continue being built. But this measure will stop business–no company will want to come here ever. Would you? If you had to pay for an election, but a group like PORC could steer people against you? I’d just go build somewhere else. We can kiss new jobs goodbye.
Let’s not forget about PORC’s real mission–to get rid of those four nodes. If you look at the other measures they talk about, in Ventura and Sonoma and Napa–those measures protect lands moving forward–they didn’t go backward and try to tear up an existing General Plan the way PORC wants to. Because that is what they really after–tearing out the commercial nodes from the General Plan (especially those four near their houses!). Feeling sick now? Feeling used? Yeah. Me too.
Measure Q doesn’t stop housing growth. It’s not gonna fix our housing or our traffic, in fact we are just gonna have more housing being built and more traffic but nothing else. It will mess up our economy and keep good businesses and jobs away. Think programs, police and fire are underfunded now, just wait. It will screw up our county so badly it may go bankrupt. Don’t let these NIMBY’s get their way and ruin our county and our economy just to get what they are really after.