FROM OUR LAWSUIT PENDING AGAINST MTC/ABAG:
The Post Sustainability Institute strongly objects to the tremendous overreach of Plan Bay Area in the imposition of regional governance over the voters and their elected representatives in the nine county, 101 city San Francisco Bay Area. The elevation of an unelected, unrepresentative body over the people of these municipalities is a violation of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the US and California constitutions.  We assert that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments have taken SB 375 and used it to impose an aggressive ideology of land use restrictions and regionalization. Regional governance inserts a layer of unelected boards between local government and the federal and state grant makers/funders.  This regional layer (MTC/ABAG), unaccountable to the electorate, sets up de facto mandates for local government--effectively using money as a lure and a bludgeon to cities and counties desperate for funds.   As more and more regions are created and imposed on local and state governments across the nation there will be less local control.  Local government will exist solely to implement regional regulations administratively without meaningful input from the voters.

The necessity for government subsidies or changes to Proposition 13 (California property tax) to implement this Plan is clearly stated in the Plan itself on nearly every page.  Restricting development of both residential and commercial uses primarily to highly urbanized city centers even when the real estate and economic markets do not support it is a recipe for failure and debt.  The entire plan is a house of cards based on a financing scheme that does not exist in California: Redevelopment.  Redevelopment debt has had a crippling impact on California; bonded debt for redevelopment in our state had reached $81 billion by 2007 and was doubling every 10 years. (Redevelopment: The Unknown Government, Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform, 2007).  The reinstatement or reinvention of tax increment financing for private development imposes a generational debt requiring 20-40 years of payments to bond brokers.  Schemes for assembling and acquiring privately owned fully-developed land parcels in the Priority Development Areas will, as stated in the Plan, require eminent domain.  Eminent domain is intended for public use only, and the perversion of the concept of public use to acquire land for private benefit will not be tolerated in California. In any case, at the time that Plan Bay Area is scheduled for adoption (July 18, 2013) none of these potential funding schemes is in effect, therefore the Plan fails the feasibility requirement of SB 375.

Plan Bay Area and SB 375 are predicated on the implementation of Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development was formally defined in the 1987 United Nations publication Our Common Future written by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development (referred to as the Brundtland Commission).  Sustainable Development is defined as:

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

All that remained was to state that our current activities and means of living were ‘compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ and then decide what to do about it.

After Our Common Future was presented to the UN General Assembly in 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) was tasked with designing strategies for achieving Sustainable Development by the year 2000.  At the Rio Earth Summit in June, 1992, the Brundtland Commission came back with the action plan for implementing Sustainable Development globally: Agenda 21.   Referred to as the Agenda for the 21st Century, this document was agreed to by 179 nations, including President George H.W. Bush. 

William Clinton was elected President in November, 1992, and six months later he issued Executive Order #12852 which created the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD). It first met in the summer of 1993; and continued until 1999.  The members of the PCSD included Cabinet Secretaries for Transportation, Agriculture, Education, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration, Energy, Interior, and Defense.  Representing business were CEOs for Pacific Gas and Electric, Enron (Ken Lay), BP Amoco, and Dow Chemical, among others.  Environmental organizations rounded out the balance with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, World Resources Institute, the Nature Conservancy, and the Environmental Defense Fund being the most notable.

The PCSD immediately began laying the groundwork for implementing Agenda 21 in the United States. The goal was to change public policy to bring it into alignment with the new agenda for the 21st century.  The PCSD formalized its recommendations in ‘Sustainable America—A New Consensus.’ 

In the PCSD’s list of vital elements to incorporate into their recommendations they included this statement:

‘We need a new collaborative decision process that leads to better decisions, more rapid change, and more sensible use of human, natural, and financial resources in achieving our goals.’

A new collaborative decision process.  The new definition for consensus is the neutralization of expressed opposition.

In the old way of doing things, the democratic way, an issue is put before the voters and they vote on it directly, or they have a representative who reviews the issues, debates them publicly, and then votes.  If the voters are not satisfied with the outcome, they can initiate a referendum or vote out the representative.

‘Sustainable America—A New Consensus’ does not allow for actual dissent.  There can be no opportunity for failure in implementing Agenda 21.  In fact the Cabinet Secretaries reported that they could implement approximately two thirds of the PCSD’s recommendations administratively. However, it is not desirable that citizens notice that they are not being given a choice in the most important issues of their lives, so they are given the illusion that they are making decisions for themselves. The real meaning of consensus is to take away your voice and leave you feeling as if you are the only one who has some problem with the results. The President’s Council on Sustainable Development incorporated the Delphi Technique into its recommendations so that ‘more rapid change’ could be imposed on us through clever manipulation.  The Delphi Technique was used by MTC/ABAG and their consultants in their ‘visioning meetings’ in order to manipulate the outcome.  Although they will say that they have never heard of the Delphi Technique they are in fact using it to direct public opinion, ignore or marginalize dissent, and declare ‘consensus’ on their preferred alternative.

Sustainable Development/UN Agenda 21 is exemplified in the Plan Bay Area documents by the push for high density urban development in city centers by any means necessary while starving the rural and suburban areas for funds and development.  Using tactics better suited to criminal gangs, MTC/ABAG is hoping to slam through the most aggressive regional plan in the United States.  UN Agenda 21 is a global plan implemented locally, and this is the Plan for the SF Bay Area.  Similar plans can be found throughout the United States and the world with names like Envision Utah, Imagine Calgary, Granite State Future, PlaNY, One Valley One Vision, Horizon 2025 (Ontario, Canada), and Hanoi (Viet Nam) Regional Center 2030 Plan.  All of these plans are the same plan with the same goal: move people out of the rural and suburban areas into the city centers where they can be more easily managed, controlled, and surveilled. This is not a conspiracy theory, it is a conspiracy fact.  No amount of government-sponsored shaming, mocking, marginalizing, or lying about those of us speaking the truth can change this fact.  The people of the United States of America and of the State of California will not be a party to this plan to destroy private property and civil rights.  We intend to fight Plan Bay Area and we intend to win. 

REPORTED TO US:

Greg Sarris, 61, Graton Rancheria Tribal Chief on 11/3/2013 at meeting of North Bay Organizing Project in Santa Rosa said:

“… last night the tribe opened its casino.  That casino is currently employing 2,500 people all of whom have medical, dental and retirement and wage above the minimum…and I love walking around and seeing all the brown faces and hearing all the Spanish in that building.  We’re also—you hear a lot about the casino—but we also have 250 acres aside from it.  We are planting those 250 acres in organic vegetables and with us we are going to hire low risk prisoners and undocumented workers.  All of that with a living wage with medical, dental, and retirement.”

And he also said:

“So we want to make a difference. And it’s not just in the environment and in jobs but in social justice.  We know that there are public officials here today and that you better listen.  You better start coming over to our side of town over there listening to what we have to say because now I’ve got what you’ve always had…it's called money. Listen carefully each of you. Until you come out and talk to us and listen to us and answer to what happened, I will take my money and run a spotted chihuahua and try to win.  And I mean it.”


This month the 1,300-member Graton Rancheria tribe will open its Graton Resort & Casino, an $800 million development with 3,000 slot machines and 144 gambling tables spread out over 340,000 square feet is expected to generate revenue of more than $530 million a year by 2016. Just beyond the parking lot is 250 acres of undeveloped land.  It is currently being discussed as the site for vegetable farming but the tribe has also said it eventually plans to add a hotel.

Here is the audio file with the introduction of Sarris beginning after approximately three minutes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0pKAcmsTRI5TFJYbHlMQ00tLVk/edit?usp=sharing

North Bay Organizing Project--what is it?
Our Mission: Unite people to build leadership and grassroots power for social, economic, racial and environmental justice.

 Here is the latest column from Dick Spotswood at the IJ.  He's absolutely right, but doesn't see that Plan Bay Area is really not about making sense...it's about social engineering and control.   Packing people into dense city centers without adequate transportation options is the goal. Empowering unelected boards. Destroying existing jurisdictional boundaries and replacing them with 'regions'. Amazing, isn't it?  Not if you understand UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development.


We appreciate it that Dick Spotswood is the ONLY journalist in the Bay Area who will write the truth about Plan Bay Area.  Thank you, Dick.


DICK SPOTSWOOD * THE SUNDAY MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL  

A column on government and politics published Sunday, August 4, 2013 #467

© A copyright of The Marin Independent Journal.

HIGH DENSITY DEVELOPMENT: REAL BENEFITS OR SPIN?

NOW that the fractious debate over Plan Bay Area is over, Marinites might want to see what true high-density housing looks like.

All they need to do is drive to Corte Madera. Two minutes off Highway 101, at the corner of Tamal Vista Boulevard and Wornum Drive, the curious can see for themselves.

Once completed in early 2014, the 180-unit four-story apartment complex at 195 Tamal Vista presents a fine opportunity to learn if high-density, supposedly transit-oriented development delivers the environmental and social benefits promised by its advocates.

This San Jose-style massive apartment block on the site of the old WinCup plant has both good and bad aspects.

Built by big-time developer MacFarlane Partners, the looming structure consists of 162 market-rate apartments and only 18 units for lower-income residents. MacFarlane's business plan calls for "high-density, urban-style living."

Plan Bay Area is all about construction of high-density housing near transit corridors. This project, approved before the plan was adopted, provides an example of what's encouraged.

Tamal Vista is immediately adjacent to a transit corridor, Highway 101 and the north-south bikeway.

There's no question that it's high density at 40 units per acre.

Corte Madera, a town inaccurately criticized for dragging its feet when it comes to building housing, delivers big time.

Further, it's in a mostly commercial area where massive construction doesn't degrade single-family home neighborhoods. It replaces a factory that employed a hundred workers who often commuted from out of the county.

The project is privately owned, so it pays property taxes for schools, police and fire.

What's wrong, other than a massive design wholly inappropriate for Central Marin?

The connection to transit is illusory. The seven-minute walk to the scruffy freeway bus pad is useful if potential residents work in San Francisco's Financial District, Golden Gate Transit's destination.

The reality is that the old Financial District isn't the job magnet it was 25 years ago.

It's a 20-minute walk from Tamal Vista to Larkspur's Ferry Terminal. Few daily commuters will make that trek. They could drive, except the ferry's parking lot is jammed.

The 10-minute walk to the Town Center shopping mall hardly makes this "urban style" living. Most residents will drive to Safeway, not walk.

That 195 Tamal Vista has only 18 affordable apartments makes a mockery of what high-density new urbanism is supposedly about. There's little need in Marin for more market-rate housing.

What's wanted are homes for working folks whose jobs are already in Marin.

This project does little to deliver them.

Once finished, 195 Tamal Vista will produce more traffic at an intersection that's already near capacity. Wornum Drive is where the Transportation Authority of Marin plans to locate a new freeway off-ramp, making an already bad situation worse.

Corte Madera had little choice but to approve the high-density project. The town was under pressure from the Association of Bay Area Governments and activists to build more housing.

This was one of the few sites where it made sense to build big.

This construction now makes an ideal test ground for the concept of high-density housing. Corte Madera should monitor what happens once 195 Tamal Vista opens.

Find out where the new residents work. Are their jobs located nearby or far away? How many apartment dwellers either use transit or instead drive to work, shop and play?

What's the project's real-world impact on local streets?

The results should disclose whether suburban high-density urban-style housing provides the environmental benefits that supporters claim or if it's just marketing hype from real estate developers.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

OTHER THOUGHTS: "We hang petty thieves and appoint the great thieves to public office."
Aesop

__________________________________________________________________________

 

Write Dick Spotswood at spotswood@comcast.net

CLOSE TO HOME --Submitted to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

May 6, 2013

Rosa Koire
Executive Director
Post Sustainability Institute

We are suing to stop Plan Bay Area, the nine county land use and transportation plan which is a violation of your constitutional rights and a shocking overreach of the experiment in regional governance. 

Our nation is a constitutional republic with a framework of direct election that rises from local government through county, state, and up to the federal level.   This framework ensures that the peoples’ rights are protected and that our voices are heard.  Plan Bay Area is designed to empower a layer of regional government between state and county, and ultimately between state and federal which renders our voices irrelevant. These regional boards are not elected by the people; the board members are selected out of elected officials who support regional goals.

Regional boards like the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) are holding the purse strings for state and federal transportation and grant dollars.  MTC and ABAG have fabricated Plan Bay Area though they claim that it was crafted in response to the needs and desires of Bay Area residents.  Most people have never heard of Plan Bay Area.  Of the seven million residents of the Bay Area approximately three tenths of one percent have participated in the so-called planning sessions. These planning sessions were tailored to elicit responses that favor high density urban development (Smart Growth), the preferred scenario of Plan Bay Area.  Those voicing a dissenting opinion were virtually ignored, labeled as NIMBYs, or as political fringe.  As a liberal Democrat, registered since 1974, I recognize this kind of smear as a way of chilling our civil rights by attempting to intimidate those who reject Plan Bay Area’s blatant violation of property rights.

        PLAN BAY AREA violates the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution by taking property rights without just compensation.  By the creation of Priority Development Areas this Plan restricts 80% of residential development and 66% of commercial development to just a few small areas of your city--until the year 2040.  If your property is outside of the PDA (96% of property is outside) you will likely not be able to build or expand your building--and you won't be paid for this loss.
         
        PLAN BAY AREA violates the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution--the Equal Protection Clause.  Owners of properties in the Priority Development Areas will receive development permits at a rate of approximately 80 times more than owners of property outside of the Priority Development Areas.
     
        PLAN BAY AREA violates voter-approved Urban Growth Boundary ordinances.  Because the Priority Development Areas are within the UGBs but are much smaller restricted areas they are in violation of ordinances that clearly state that development must be encouraged out to the limits of city services: Urban Growth Boundaries. These ordinances are found throughout the Bay Area and cannot be changed without voter approval.

        PLAN BAY AREA permanently strips all development rights from rural properties in the nine county Bay Area.  Plan Bay Area is effectively taking conservation easements on all rural lands without paying for them. 

        PLAN BAY AREA restricts development rights of property within the Priority Development Areas, too.  Construction will be limited to mixed-use high density Smart Growth development.  Existing buildings are likely to be out of compliance with your city's General Plan (legal non-conforming) and permits to make additions or changes will likely not be granted.

This Plan is dependent on tax subsidies and handouts and will devastate the Bay Area for more than a generation.  Property rights are a foundation of our freedom and are non-partisan.  Join us now in stopping Plan Bay Area.

         

This video lays out why and how you are being manipulated.  Who is making the money from the Smart Grid?  What does this mean?  Canadian presentation directly impacts us in California.