Fred Switches(?) Sides, Joins Barnum

In the Timber Production Zone debate, anyway.

Actually, I don't know that I actually switched sides. I just didn't feel all that opposed to the Board of Supes' supposed "temporary" ordinance restricting home building in Timber Production Zones.

I'm sure that came from the same knee- jerk reaction a lot of people had when hearing of Palco's plan to convert a bunch of timberland to development. I envisioned acres and acres of trees being replaced with tract housing. That wasn't the plan.

Regardless of what Palco's plan was, the ordinance did serve some purpose with the bankruptcy judge actually taking note of what our supes had done.

But one concern I had did come to pass in that the supes began talking of extending the emergency ordinance. Some elements in Humboldt seem to want that ordnance to become part of Humboldt's general plan, if I understand them correctly. That was my concern: Once this gets started, it might well become permanent.

Over at Heraldo's blog, some are pretty up front about their feelings that they don't seem to think people should have any control at all over their property. One commentor- sarcastically, I think- says opponents of the more restrictive TPZ ordinance want, to paraphrase, "to do whatever we want with our land...".

Clear cutting 160 acres and covering that land with tract housing might be considered "doing whatever we want...", or at least what some people might want. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about maybe having one house on 160, or some such, acres. That's not a big development and that's not necessarily a given either, as I would think they'd still have to go through all the Planning Department obstacles to build even that one house.

Yep, I'm with Barnum and the others on this one, I think. I'm also with this guy. Bill, next time they run one of those ads, feel free to add my name to the list, but check with me first. You never know if I might change my mind again.