LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 8-18-2011

Honoring donors
Editor: Thank you for acknowledging the installation of the Palm
Drive Hospital Helipad Donors sign (“Hospital helipad honors
donors,” Sonoma West Times & News, August 18). Although you
mentioned the helipad ground breaking date (Oct. 6, 2007), we were
a little surprised but very proud that our united effort produced
an operationally ready helipad for the first patient’s arrival on
Nov. 11, 2007.
David White
Project Coordinator
Sebastopol
‘Either-or’ mentality
Editor: The many comments in last week’s Letters to the editor,
expressing “pro-growth” sentiments towards the projected CVS
complex, certainly reflect an understandable position to take in
today’s economy. Despite the fact that our economic problems are
rooted in causes that are, at least, nationwide (and not something
for which our small town should make amends), as well as the fact
that we will someday be needing to replace our current economic
model of “infinite growth” with something that is much more
sustainable, we could all use the “extra money.”
Conversely, those with the so-called “anti-growth” feelings have
their own validity, being primarily concerned with the quality of
our lives, our environment, our future, and perhaps even the very
survival of our beleaguered planet. They deserve recognition.
It’s fairly safe to say that these projects, and most others
like them, do eventually get built in some form or another (we lost
NEAP, but Barlow and CVS will most probably prevail) and the much
revered revenue stream does then begin. Surely, knowing that, we
might allow ourselves the time to catch our breath, be a little (or
a lot) more patient, remind ourselves that “man does not live by
bread alone,” and spend some serious attention to issues beyond the
immediate, the superficial, the simplistic, even the mediocre.
We could call for projects that are not only generators of large
profits, but ones that also exhibit an architectural integrity, a
charm, a tangible demonstration of our caring for the quality of
our neighborhoods that we currently see and enjoy in our existing
fragile community, handed down to us by our esteemed predecessors.
If so, then perhaps we might transcend the “either-or” mentality
we’re currently into, and see a result that has everyone being
better served, in deeper ways. Our grandchildren will appreciate
it.
Robert Beauchamp
Sebastopol
CEQA misunderstanding
Editor: There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding about
California’s Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Sebastopol Mayor Guy
Wilson voted against the City Planning Commission’s rejection of
the proposed CVS project because he “felt reversal … was compelled
by law.” A former Planning Commission member has said that
California laws require the project’s CEQA document (a “Mitigated
Negative Declaration”) to be approved unless more significant
environmental impacts can be identified. A City Councilmember has
opined that the City’s General Plan is merely a vision or
aspiration.
All of them are quite wrong.
CEQA does not control a local government’s decision-making
process. Sebastopol’s General Plan is the local government’s
constitution. The General Plan takes precedence and the City’s
Codes must conform to the plan. Under these Codes the City
government chooses which projects will be and will not be
built.
Some level of CEQA assessment is required by law, but a finding
of any significant and unmitigatable impact provides grounds for
rejecting a project.
For example, the City Council cannot approve a project with an
unmitigatable traffic impact unless they also approve a resolution
explaining the specific factors (“overriding considerations”) that
balance its environmental damage, citing details of those
factors.
The current General Plan is the key policy document that
Sebastopol City Council and its citizens enacted to maintain our
town’s individual character. Sebastopol was recently accepted by
the “Cittaslow” (Slow Cities) movement, another signal of the City
Council’s desire to preserve the small-town character.
A majority of City Councilmembers, including Mayor Wilson,
supported the Cittaslow application. Why has only Councilmember
Sarah Gurney striven to preserve Sebastopol’s small town character,
voting against CVS’s proposed move downtown?
In the face of CVS and other big-box proposals aimed at
Sebastopol, all the City Council has to do is refuse to change the
General Plan, by identifying the public benefits that outweigh the
un-mitigatable impacts of the project, once they are adequately
assessed.
Unfortunately, the General Plan is in process of revision, as
happens every 20 years, giving the interests supporting conversion
to big box malls a chance to change it in their favor. Along with
fighting CVS and educating the City government about how CEQA
really works, we have to defend the parts of the General Plan that
preserve Small Town Sebastopol.
To all who read this, please support the citizen challenge to
CVS and join the General Plan’s defenders.
Jane Nielson and Howard Wilshire
Sebastopol
Default position
Editor: Like most people who live in Sebastopol, I think of
myself as a reasonable person. I try to consider both sides of any
debate (except during presidential elections). The downtown CVS
project is clearly complicated and seems to have plenty of
arguments for and against it. Summarizing letters written to this
newspaper, here are the “pro” arguments, as best as I can
understand them:
• Change is inevitable;
• The developer has been willing to work with city
officials;
• The development is a 2 and 1/2 acre “incubator project”;
• Sebastopol is actually getting smaller, not bigger. A new,
smaller CVS will help reverse that;
• We need a third full-service pharmacy downtown;
• Replacing a larger CVS with a smaller one will create
jobs;
• The family that owns the property wants (understandably) to be
rid of it;
• Having a smaller CVS will help rescue Sebastopol from its
current austerity budget;
• The new CVS will eliminate an empty storefront at the south
entrance to town. (Won’t it also create a new one twice the size at
the north entrance to town?);
• The findings of the Planning Commission become irrelevant
whenever the city might be sued.
If those are the best arguments for a project that will redefine
the downtown core and increase traffic problems at the intersection
of two state highways, I’m inclined, by default, to be against
it.
Bill Roby
Sebastopol
Pellini’s contribution
Editor: How Great! Sebastopol will now become another “Strip
Mall” city! What’s next? A Home Depot? A Lowe’s? Maybe an
Applebee’s would be neat … right next to CVS/Chase. A “Ross Dress
For Less” would really complete the picture.
Pete Pellini’s screed from last week’s newspaper reeks of
righteousness and indignation. His munificent 76-year
“contribution” to our community where “we have lived, worked and
raised our families” will now culminate by selling out to anybody
who will buy. Pellini doesn’t really care about Sebastopol. He
cares about a buck. That’s the bottom line. If he really cared
about Sebastopol he’d donate the property to the city for a park
and write it off as a tax deduction. What a concept.
Oh well … he didn’t sell to WalMart. But only because they
didn’t ask.
Ed LaFrance
Sebastopol
Sebastopol’s jewel
Editor: Once again Sebastopol is at a crossroads. We need new
development, especially in the current economy. We have a decision
to make about what kind of development we want.
Option 1: Approve CVS Pharmacy’s and Chase Bank’s moves from the
Redwood Marketplace to one of the most congested intersections in
town. Allow them to demolish the old buildings and install
drive-through windows. Choose to pave over this keystone property
with a parking lot twice the size required by the City.
Option 2: Recognize that this area is already congested: approve
the site for low-traffic and pedestrian-friendly businesses. If
possible, renovate the existing buildings to reflect our past. Tie
the businesses developed here to the rest of downtown in a way that
encourages tourism and makes it walkable for residents. 
The stoplight at the corner of Morris Street near Animal Kingdom
and the former Bradley Video already backs up — in rush times, all
the way to the Chevron station or beyond. Traffic coming down
Highway 12 from the west backs up past the library and the fire
station, past Park Side School, up the hill toward Burbank
Heights.
Do we really want even more cars backed up on Highway 12? Will
traffic gridlock really benefit our merchants, or will more
tourists and locals just bypass Sebastopol, finding other routes
and other merchants? How many of us have sat in stalled traffic on
Highway 12 a mile east of the Pellini site?
People have begun to avoid Sebastopol completely, shopping in
Santa Rosa and then coming down Guerneville or Occidental roads.
This doesn’t help our merchants or generate the sales tax
Sebastopol needs.
Our City Council members are all public-spirited people who
volunteer tirelessly, but in this case all but Sarah Gurney either
misread the Planning Commission’s advice or were not well served by
the Planning Department. They were told that traffic impacts were
not significant.
Let’s ask them to think again. The Pellini property can be a
jewel of attractive businesses at Sebastopol’s eastern gateway, a
bridge between Main Street and The Barlow project, unifying a
walkable downtown. Let’s make it happen.
Kevin Dwan
Sebastopol
Work with it
Editor: It amazes me how so many people will speak out against
the CVS-Chase development. I am no fan of Chase Bank, but the
bottom line is if those same complaining people supported Pellini
Chevrolet, they might still be in business. The old dealership is
an eyesore for our community, not to mention the low tax basis that
went back 75 years.
The bottom line is this fits the zoning requirements. The
improvements they have agreed to are a benefit for our community.
In the not so distant past I remember the fight against McDonald’s,
but they’re here. So, if you want something else in that location,
buy it from Pellini for an equal price and do what you want.
Otherwise, see the benefit to the entire community and work with
it.
Randy Coffman
Sebastopol
Poorly served
Editor: On June 14, the issue of whether to certify the Initial
Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND), for the CVS/Chase
project came before the Planning Commission. An MND is prepared
when the initial study finds potentially significant impacts which
can be avoided by revising the project or by mitigation. For this
project, the City identified two measures to reduce the identified
impacts below a level of significance. Those measures are a
greenhouse gas reduction offset, and the “re-optimization” of
traffic signal timing at Main and Bodega.
During discussion commissioners cited a number of concerns:
• The traffic study is a computer-model and is at variance with
the NE Area study;
• The General Plan (GP) states that shopping centers are to be
outside of the Downtown Core;
• Traffic Levels of Service do not comply with the GP’s
thresholds, and
• Under CEQA, economic impacts have to be considered, for
example the possibility of blight in the struggling Redwood
Marketplace, or impacts upon Rite Aid.
The PC voted to not certify the MND. Subsequent to the vote,
Commissioner Williams van Aggelen stated that they now need to make
comments for the City Council to cite because the applicant may
appeal. The Commission received no further guidance and so did not
provide substantiation for their decision. City Council would later
be informed that the PC did not make findings.
The Planning Commission, the Council and the Public were poorly
served by this process.
Planning Commissioners volunteer long hours fraught with assured
controversy. We ask these boards to represent us as thoughtful
members of the community, not as experts in the law.
Decision makers on citizen boards need staff to present them two
resolutions with findings: one in the affirmative, one in the
negative. Either could be amended during the meeting.
Sherry Petersen
Sebastopol
Stop squabbling, please
Editor: We moved our residence away from Sebastopol two years
ago, but because we own a property in Sebastopol, and because we
love the town, we continue to subscribe to Sonoma West. It’s
discouraging to see that the squabbling and name calling still
continue over development.
While we live out of town we drive through the Highway
12/Petaluma Boulevard crossroads at least twice a week. Many of our
friends, our doctors, hair salon, favorite restaurants are in
Sebastopol as well as shops and services we still frequent.
We would like to see a map or plan reproduced in your paper of
the proposed CVS development. Maybe you published one and we
somehow missed it. Where can we read the traffic study? Given the
inevitable controversy over traffic, why didn’t the City then and
why don’t they now hire an outside traffic engineering firm to
conduct a study?
Let’s clear the air of acrimony and get the facts, just the
facts, Sebatospol.
Jeannette and Frank Baumgardner
Santa Rosa/Sebastopol