Betrayed by county planners
Kern Valley Sun, www.kvsun.com 5 October 2011
On Sept. 22, Richard Rowe and I attended the Planning Commissioner’s Meeting in Bakersfield for the hearing on the 2011 Zoning Revisions, and let me say, you and I were sold out by county staff. Several of us had been part of a series of community workshops and had worked out a consensus on the text for the regulations.
County staff lied and betrayed you. Every speaker complained the text was nonsensical and not as agreed upon. A section about dogs and pets was tossed out but the whole thing should have been tossed. No one supported the revision. I knew some posted their support online but they hadn’t read the circuitous last minute changes.
The revision is not about dark skies, dogs or community gardens. The real agenda of the revision is to allow utility companies’ 500-foot wind turbines above Lake Isabella, Wofford Heights, Kernville and out Kelso Valley Road. This was a “last minute change” coming in the week of the vote and in the form of a map, not text.
McQuiston’s office said this couldn’t happen but the planners discussed it and said it could. The dirtiest low down, back stabbing was that while solar energy producers can now put up solar farms with 100 percent density; you, the average homeowner, will not be allowed to install enough capacity to generate back into the grid. Without that incentive homes will not produce green energy, utilities will continue to produce electricity-burning, dirty fossil fuel and making countries that hate us richer still. Call your Supervisor’s office at 760-549-2068 or email him at district1@co.kern.ca.us and tell him to vote No when the 2011 Zoning Revisions come up.
Rick Crockett
Onyx
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/10/05/betrayed-by-county-planners/