Palomar Airport: Part 1: Should You Care? What Can You Do? Blog#31

What Can You Do?   What is the Purpose of The Palomar Airport Blogs?

You may not care about Palomar Airport.  But these blogs are about more than Palomar.  They are about abuse in government.  

When the County itself undertakes and pays for a project, especially when it is the agency preparing the environmental documents, County compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act [CEQA] is often sketchy.   

In contrast, when the County reviews a citizen project or when an impacted city oversees the CEQA process for a County project, CEQA compliance is more likely.   The County applies a double CEQA standard.    Low hurdles for itself, tall hurdles for you.  See past blogs  #7, 9, 10, 11,12, and 22 highlighting County shortcomings.

If you wish, forget Palomar.  Focus on County projects you care about.  You may want to support or oppose a project.  Or, simply assure that the County adopts helpful mitigation measures to reduce project impacts.  

The $40 million Palomar Commons project arises at Palomar Airport and El Camino Roads.  The Lowe’s Improvement Center, bank, gas station, fast food eateries, and retail shops will attract drivers who substantially impair traffic.  

Fortunately, Carlsbad as the CEQA lead agency, oversees this project even though the project is on County Airport property.  Carlsbad has required the developer to pay several million dollars in mitigation costs to create traffic improvements.  

What Can You Do?
   
· Information is Power in Political Elections.   Use information to oppose members of the Board of Supervisors or city council who abuse the environmental process. 

Don’t worry if an election is not near.   A time will come when the information is useful.   You need not campaign yourself.   Provide the information to an opposition candidate.   The opposition candidate will have supportable election talking points.
Track what the politicians are doing. 

Keep a file.  Put newspaper clippings, blog posts, and internet search info in the file.    If you are especially concerned, file a public records request with the County or City.  The California Government Code  [Sections 6250 and following] requires the government to provide their records to you.   Copying records costs you.  But reading is free.  Some documents can be withheld.  See Government Code §6254. 

Just write a letter to the County or City Clerk to get the records.   Make the request specific enough to identify the records  by subject or category but broad enough to get related records such as consultant reports and staff letters to the Board of Supervisors or City Council.   You can make multiple requests.  

Enforce the conflict of interest laws.  If there is any hint that a politician favors contributors, file a public records request to see the campaign contributions made to the politician.   When a City Council or Board of Supervisor member at a public hearing may have a conflict of interest, ask on the record for the possibly conflicted member to either abstain from voting or to explain why there is no conflict.  An untruthful answer can lead to prosecution.  

If your council or board members are split on an issue, provide information to the member that supports your cause.  Provide the information long before the meeting.  The receiving politician then has time use the information fruitfully.  

· Information is Power in the CEQA and NEPA Process.   Counties and cities use inadequate environmental documents for several reasons.    

They know the public does not understand the environmental process.  Put the blogs noted above in your file.  They explain the most common ploys counties and cities use to short circuit CEQA or NEPA.   If you do review a CEQA or NEPA  document, ask if that document uses any of the ploys noted.  Comment accordingly.  

Politicians know you won’t see environmental documents being circulated.  Who reads obscure newspaper notices, especially when newspapers are dying?  If you are interested in certain projects, call the city and/or county once each year and get yourself on the list that provides you actual notice of environmental documents.

Understand why the government wins most environmental challenges.  Use countermeasures.   Governments win if they follow CEQA procedures and substantial evidence supports their decision. 

But there is a CEQA twist helpful to the public.    The County and cities must prepare longer Environmental Impact Reports [EIRs] rather than short negative declarations if substantial evidence IN THE RECORD supports a fair argument that the proposed project may produce significant environmental effects.  [See CEQA, Public Resources Code, §§21080, subd. (d) 21082.2, subd (d) and CEQA guidelines, §15064, subd. (f)(1)].  

Next week: What is the Record?  How do you place substantial evidence in it?  And more.   Comments to this blog may be made on Carlsbad.Patch.com or sent to benderbocan@aol.com if you have privacy concerns.