Supervisor's Office on the gravel trucks
from the comments of "Stop The Trucks" Picks Up Speed. See the Stop The Trucks resource page for more info...
Hello I’m Supervisor Steve Bennett’s assistant. I wanted to get the word out that Supervisor Bennett requested and received a two-week extension of the public comment period to February 2nd. Also, that in addition to providing comments to the planning staff, a letter directly to the Planning Commission at such time as the hearing is scheduled would also be advisable. You can get on the notification list for the Planning Commission hearing by writing to:
Gary Kaiser
Santa Barbara County Planning Department
624 Foster Road, Suite C
Santa Maria, CA 93455
or email gkaiser@co.santa-barbara.ca.us
Supervisor Bennett has been expressing his opposition to this project since 2005. Incredibly the first draft of the EIR claimed the project would have no traffic or air impacts. His 2005 comment letter on the first draft of the EIR included the below passage which led to substantial revisions in the EIR:
“The Draft EIR accepts the applicant’s suggestion that the project has no traffic and air quality impacts because there are other sand and gravel purveyors within the Tri-County region. This impact analysis methodology has no basis in the California CEQA Guidelines or case law. Under this imaginative theory, Santa Barbara County could approve an infinite number of new gravel mines with the miraculous result of having no traffic or air quality impact whatsoever. Clearly, this scenario would defy not only the laws of physics, but those of the State of California as well.”
Now the new draft EIR acknowledges both traffic and air impacts and they list mitigation measures for them. We are working to identify areas of the EIR that are inadequate.
In addition, Supervisor Bennett has also written directly to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors to object to mine traffic through the Ojai Valley and will continue to fight this unacceptable impact to Valley residents and highway users.
You can look at the second draft EIR online , Supervisor Bennett placed a copy of the EIR on disk and put it at the Ojai and Oak View libraries too.
Steve Offerman
Supervisor Bennett's Office
Ventura
steve.offerman@ventura.org
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Comments (3)
I suggest they pitch a tent along Hwy 33 and try to
sleep through the night, given the current Truck
traffic going to the backcountry, let alone the
increase in volume being proposed for the Diamond project. Why have the
hearing all the way in Cuyama? Afraid of how many people here will show up in opposition? Also we need to have Steve Bennet and the entire Ojai municipal
governmet attend the hearing
personnally in dissent.
Pete Lafollette
Ojai
Comment #1 Posted by: pete lafollette | January 13, 2007 12:24 PM
First to be fair the picture of the truck over the side is unfair. If whoever took the picture was not so ignorant that person would had learned a pick up spinning out of control in the ice the driver moved to save an accident, the driver of the pick up continued on down the road. I have a simple solution for Ojai, take ALL trucks off 33. That means all beer and soda trucks.Next all grocery trucks to Von's and all others in the Valley. Continuing to ban trucks to Ojai to all lumber and hardware stores and all restaurants. Most of all the 20+ gas trucks to Ojai that carry amere 172000 gallons of gas to Ojai. Most everybody buys their goods out of Ojai anyway . With a total BAN on ALL trucks to Ojai you can all go to Ventura for your goods and supplies. That's all for now.
Comment #2 Posted by: julie nielsen | March 24, 2007 12:14 PM
I have Steve Bennett on DVD. You won't believe it!!! Or if you know him you will believe it!!!
Comment #3 Posted by: Carroll Dean Williams | July 28, 2007 10:15 AM