COMMENTARY: No gravel villains, please

On Sept. 10, in Forestville we had a town hall meeting regarding
the community’s mounting quarry and traffic issues, as well as the
possible avenues of action to try and deal with it as a community;
with the options of the filed lawsuit, Good Neighbor Compromise
Agreement, and County Supervisor meetings being discussed.
My general feeling on the “compromise agreement” is at least to
be getting the quarry owners and developers engaged in discussion
and interested in considering what the community needs is a step in
the right direction.
Most of the Supervisors or PRMD authorities do not have to live
with the impact in their own communities; as long as
the consequences are in someone else’s back yard, it is
invisible.  
I personally feel that we should be very cautious about
dismissing the suit prematurely. I am concerned that without
backing from the Supervisors that any proposed
agreement between our community and the quarry industry will have
no real enforcement.
We also need to be certain that any compromise presented is
found as reasonable to a majority in our community. Basically it
seems to boil down to “Yes, the County needs rock, Forestville has
the commodity, and the quarries are in business to sell it.” We
need a balance between the County and the quarry owners making a
living, and the needs of the community living here.
The traffic and environmental impacts are of a great concern to
me. 
It would be reasonable to expect a significant increase in truck
traffic long before the bypass is started, yet the quarries will
already have their improved, expanded status and increased in
income, and, the County will have secured its aggregate.  
The distribution of the funds for, and actual completion of, the
bypass worries me, in that we have no set start and completion
date. If completion of the bypass takes too long, its costs may
exceed what is funded, and put the community in the forced position
to have to “suck up” a bond measure or tax increase to secure its
completion.
The air monitoring in the EIR studies, to my knowledge, was
performed at the fire station, rather than at the school, where
even when/if there is a bypass, there will be a large concentration
of truck traffic and resulting diesel exhaust.  I feel that
private, independent monitoring needs to be funded, so that we are
aware of and taking into consideration the air quality that our
children must live with 180 days of the year, weekend and
extracurricular activities at the school not even included. 
So just with these few issues as examples, I think community
solidarity and input is key for there to be any equitable solution,
whether people want to fund and pursue a legal battle or a
community compromise. The problem too many times is that we
complain amongst each other, take too little action until it’s too
late, and find ourselves left with no option other than to continue
to complain amongst each other. 
If you have concerns, voice them to the Supervisors, take part
in community efforts to make you opinion matter.  If there are
concerns you feel are not represented in the compromise proposals,
share that information, make your concerns heard. 
We are a community and should find a way of working together for
everyone’s sake ‹ Forestville, Bo-Dean, and Canyon Rock ‹ without
vilanizing or victimizing each other.
– Tara Martinelli is a member of Forest United and Forestville
Citizens for Sensible Growth