HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-01-2016 item 9, Schmidt (2)COUNCIL MEETING: 1 j O I 1(,,
ITEM NO.:
Gardner, Erica
From: Richard Schmidt
Sent: Tuesday, November 1, 2016 10:53 AM FLNOV
IVED
Subject: Item 9
To: E-mail Council Website <emailcouncil(rx7slycity.or> Z 2016
Re: Item 9, Park Strategic Plan
Y CLERK
Dear Council Members,
Since writing to you last week about the North Broad Neighborhood Park omission from the list of park
projects in this strategicplan, I have come to realize the immensity of the scope of this plan
beyondthat one issue. This note does not change my sentiments expressed on that one issue.
Adopting this plan at this time, however, appears to be putting thecart before the horse, especially in
regard to protecting open space, sincemany components of city planning that should feed into this
plan have yet to becompleted. I therefore ask you to shelvethis strategic plan's consideration
until all those subsidiary components havebeen completed and the strategic plan modified to
include their recommendationsand outcomes.
also have great concern about the public consultation process used to compile this plan, and the
resulting one-sided and mediocrequality of the document. How outrageous that no environmental
organizationswere so much as consulted! How can the city justify this?
Yet, this exclusion from city planning has become businessas usual at city hall ever since staff
rewrote the Conservation and Open SpaceElement, opening its back door to constant input from the
Chamber of Commerce,while slamming its front door to any input from the environmental
community,which requested such input on THE most environmental of all elements of thegeneral
plan.
Or when the LUCE update took place. Unlike the 1994 generalplan update, when there were
complementary economic and environmentalcommittees providing input and making the plan much
stronger for their dual efforts,for the LUCE there were two economic committees and when the
environmentalcommunity asked for a comparable committee, they were told by staff to take ahike.
Or, more recently, when the Climate Action Plan was being created,it was drawn up by
undergraduate amateurs, with consultation with suchnon-expert organizations as the Chamber,
Kiwanis Club, and HomebuildersAssociation, while consulting not a single environmental
organization, residentgroup, nor any experts (despite the fact we have many, including at least
oneIPCC member, living in the community). The resulting C.A. Plan is predictably afarce.
The council needs to send a very strong message to staffthat this sort of manipulation, or as I call it
death -by -process, is not theSan Luis Obispo Way, and needs to be terminated. Systematic exclusion
of anexpert and engaged segment of this community from the formulation of publicpolicy is just plain
bad governance, and needs to end.
Sincerely,
Richard Schmidt