The County General Plan, passed in 1981, mandated that a grading ordinance be included as a necessary component to insure that environmentally sound grading practices were part of the county's future.
For the past twenty years the standing Boards of Supervisors have been controlled by the timber, agricultural and business interests. They have failed to pass a grading ordinance because it conflicts with the agenda of these same interests.
We accepted a seat on the grading ordinance committee to speak for the environment and hopefully write an ordinance that would regulate the ecological damage caused by timber, agriculture and business interests.
After months of negotiating with representatives of the very industries that this ordinance is supposed to be regulating we have come to realize that:
They have chosen self-interest rather than to respect the intention of the grading ordinance.
The process is fatally flawed and heavily stacked in favor of those same interests.
The committee's decisions are short on environmental protection and irreparably compromised.
The Mendocino Environmental Center has decided to discontinue its participation with this exercise in futility. We will join the Friends of the Garcia River, the Willits Environmental Center and other organizations to work outside this tainted process toward the goal of a sustainable grading ordinance that will serve all the people of Mendocino County.
We understand that Daniel Myers is a Board-appointed member of this committee and will continue on with his work. We appreciate the time and effort he has put into this process as our representative and wish him the best of luck in his endeavor.
Without an environmental buy-in there can be no county grading ordinance. That is why the MEC discontinued working within the committee process. We did not want to give even the slightest hint of support to the extremely compromised document that the Board-appointed committee has produced.
As we go to press, a coalition of environmental organizations (including the MEC) has released the first draft of an alternative, environmentally strong grading ordinance that would serve all the people and the future of Mendocino County. It is now being circulated among local groups, organizations and activists for comment before the final draft is completed.
The Planning Commission will review the grading committee's document, the alternative environmental document, and a special agricultural exemption chapter written by agricultural interests. Most likely the proposed ordinance will then go before the Board of Supervisors who will kowtow to the timber, agriculture and development interests. We may be left with no option other than to practice democracy and go for a ballot initiative.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2002
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