Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow will be running with opposition in his bid for a second term in District 3. Citizen advocate Scott Calkins is dissatisfied with the representation provided by the incumbent and will raise several issues during the campaign, including expansion of the 132 Freeway, the future of Wood Colony, and toxic waste sites in the District. Supervisor Withrow strongly supports construction of the 132 Freeway between Highway 99 and Interstate 5. Scott […]
Politics
The Great Valley Would Suffer as Its Own State
News Item: A Ballot Initiative is circulating to break California into six states. The Great Valley would become part of a mostly rural landlocked state which would include the Central Sierras. If California were broken up into six different states, the Law of Unintended Consequences would figure prominently in our future. The Valley would lose a lot of the benefits from being a part of a great state, but would keep most of […]
Farmland Bill is Timely, Necessary
If there’s anything Valley citizens have learned from the passionate support for preserving Wood Colony, it’s that people value our prime farmland. But despite consistent public support for farmland preservation, California has averaged a loss of 30,000 acres of farmland per year for at least the last thirty years. Now there’s an opportunity for action that would stem the tide of destruction. Assemblymember Susan Tallman Eggman has introduced the Sustainable […]
From Wood Colony to Urban Sprawl: A Planning Manual
Converting Wood Colony from prime farm land to urban sprawl begins with the land speculator. The speculator buys land near a growing city because it is inexpensive relative to the cost of property within that city. Long term speculators buy land outside of a city’s “sphere of influence.” The speculator buys as much land as he can and then starts to agitate for the land to be included in the sphere of influence of […]
Marsh Survives Wood Colony Brickbats
Jake Wenger probably uttered the wisest words at Saturday’s town hall meeting in Wood Colony when he said, “It’s much easier to have a discussion with a clean slate.” Unfortunately for Garrad Marsh, he entered the Hart-Ransom school gymnasium with plenty of history on the “slate.” Many in the audience were still steaming from Marsh’s attempt to annex Salida, and others were furious that he and the Modesto City […]
Marsh Needs to Back Urban Limits Now
If you’ve been reading the Modesto Bee lately, you might think Dave Lopez and Bill Zoslocki are guardians of the farmland Garrad Marsh and Jenny Kenoyer are trying so hard to cover with asphalt. Kenoyer and Marsh have been framed as sell-outs and there’s even talk of a recall. It’s a far cry from what many hoped would be a farm-friendly government led by Marsh, whose years as a Modesto […]
Logic Behind Votes to Add Wood Colony to Sphere Of Influence
News item: The Modesto Bee reported in its Thursday edition that the Modesto City Council voted 5-2 in favor of adding Wood Colony to its General Plan map. Councilmembers Zoslocki and Lopez voted against the addition. In politics, everything has a logical explanation. Oftentimes, the logic seems impossible to follow. Undoubtedly, to some, the Tuesday night decision looks crazy. Let’s look for some logic. At the end of a 7 hour meeting, Mayor Garrad Marsh stated […]
Why Certain City Council Members Want A New General Plan
At the January 28, 2014 Modesto City Council meeting, Councilmembers Dave Cogdill Jr., Bill Zoslocki, and Dave Lopez voted to begin a comprehensive rewrite of the Modesto General Plan. A majority of the City Council voted down the proposal due to the high cost, but what exactly were the three proponents after? Councilmember Cogdill stated that the Modesto General Plan was out of date because it had not been updated “since 1995” and because […]
Time for Mayor Marsh to Stand Up for Wood Colony
Richard Nixon and Jerry Brown have shown that while politicians don’t have nine lives, they often have at least more than one. The thought must be comforting to Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh, because since taking office he’s seemed intent on political suicide. Almost simultaneously with being sworn in, he announced he was going annex Salida. There were only two things wrong with the proposal, both of which were toxic: (1) […]
Wood Colony: Déjà vu Reality Check for Local Economy
For over 30 years, various political groups and private citizens have worked for the preservation of farm land for future generations. With the current proposal by the City of Modesto to appropriate Wood Colony for an industrial park, now is a good time to look at the big picture of Stanislaus County’s economic development. The Economic Goal of Urban Developers The primary goal is to entirely destroy agriculture and replace it with urban development. Former Stanislaus County Supervisor Jeff Grover […]