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From the Monterey County
Herald Not a special interest It's not surprising that letter writer Don Nucci would try to portray the work of community and environmental groups as "special interests. It's a clever trick meant to imply they somehow could benefit personally or financially from their efforts, such as their work toward a sound general plan. The writer even tries to imply that because the Packard Foundation contributed some funding to LandWatch for their work on good land-use planning, that this reflected a "special interest!" This is the foundation known for its philanthropy and its public education mission, such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The resident and environmental groups who have toiled for nearly five years for a good plan have nothing at stake but their desire to see that their communities don't become "San Jose South," and that the natural heritage belonging to everyone is protected for the future, Let's remember who the real special interests are: those with money or personal gain at stake. With the general plan, such interests include many behind the ironically-named "Plan for the People," who want to rezone prime farmland for subdivisions, put intensive commercial activities in rural and residential neighborhoods, and who oppose proof-of-water and road improvement requirements for development. Gillian
Taylor |