Feed: Save Shollenberger Park - AggScore: 83.1

SUPERVISORS' PLAN TO TAKE STRAW VOTE AND HEAR LAST PUBLIC COMMENT ON DECEMBER 8th

It appears Paul Kelley, Chair of the Board of Supervisors, is intending to conduct yet another straw vote on the Dutra Asphalt plant proposal on December 8th. Supervisor Valerie Brown, who is on record against the Dutra proposal, cannot be present on the 8th and has apparently received a commitment from Mr. Kelly that a final vote will not happen on that date. It also appears obvious that the pro-Dutra strategy is for Supervisor Kelley to use the Straw vote hearing to close public comment on the "revised" proposal, and then put Dutra on a Consent Calendar vote in January. He tried this earlier this year, but public outcry and right to speak stopped this tactic. Those in favor of Dutra’s proposal would like to close the record and end public comment on the vague "revised" project description as soon as possible, however the facts still remain:

1) The revised project is still a polluting industrial factory located in a protected Scenic View Corridor and next to a sensitive wildlife and wetlands habitat. Approval would still require a zoning change from commercial, agricultural and scenic to industrial. No overriding benefit to the residents has been proven to support re-zoning.

2) Noise of barge unloading still exceeds General Plan decibel limits and would require a General Plan Amendment for excessive noise.

3) The seven story towers (62 ft.) are still significant blight on the area and a noxious landmark for the Gateway to Sonoma County and Petaluma.

4) The project still adds air pollution of the area and the new calculation of 6.7 additional cancers per million exceeds CEQA's level of significance of 5. It is unhealthy and will cause illness.

5) Truck traffic will be constant, every 3 minutes, and the Petaluma 101 South Interchange will be dominated by Dutra traffic. By their own estimates 100,000 trucks per year coming in and out of the Dutra site at Haystack landing will occur.

Help us stop this proposal. It appears a final decision will occur in the very near future. Time is of the essence!

New Save Shollenberger signs and bumper stickers will be available for pick up this Saturday (10/31) from 10am-2pm at our Headquarters. The first 50 bumper stickers and 20 signs are FREE!

322 Western Ave.
Petaluma, CA

The Dutra proposal is likely to return to the Board of Supervisors in December, so it is vital that we begin to once again grow community awareness and return this issue to the forefront of Sonoma County consciousness. The large majority of Petaluma residents are against this Asphalt plant, as well as the entire Petaluma City Council and 5 other Sonoma County cities…but it could come down to the vote of one individual on the Board of Supervisors.

Don’t let this decision be made for us. Stand up and speak your mind. Please stop by on Saturday and help us spread the word.

Trick or Treat!

Share your opinion! Click here to participate in the poll asking whether this quarry is a threat to public health.

Medical experts disagreed over the health effects of continued mining at the San Rafael Rock Quarry during a key public hearing on the quarry Tuesday. More than 300 people attended the three-hour hearing at the Civic Center, where county supervisors voted unanimously to certify as adequate and complete an environmental impact report submitted by the Dutra Group to continue operations at the quarry for least another 17 years.

The Dutra Group wants to dig the pit twice as deep as the 200 feet below sea level allowed by a 1982 permit, and continue operations for another 17 years with 250 truck trips daily.

Read the article here

New Printable Petition

We need your help to collect names & emails for Sonoma County residents opposed to the Dutra Asphalt Plant at Haystack Landing. Please collect contact information for folks in your community and forward the lists to us at our office:

Friends of Shollenberger Park
322 Western Ave
Petaluma, CA 94952

Or scan and email to us at SaveShollenberger at gmail.com

Sonoma County Regional Parks is pleased to announce the kickoff of expanded public access at Tolay Lake Regional Park. To mark the expanded access, Regional Parks is also planning a celebration on Saturday, October 10 at 10:00 am to thank the community members who helped in developing the access plan and acknowledge the acquisition partners and park neighbors. Guest speakers include 2nd District County Supervisor Mike Kerns and Regional Parks Director Mary Burns.

Click here for directions to Tolay Lake Regional Park (PDF)

Click here to RSVP to attend on Facebook

Parking Free to those attending the Ceremonies. Be there by 9:30 to get a good position. We need volunteers to hold up our BIG sign and give Supervisor MIKE KERNS and all attendees our message: NO ASPHALT PLANT AT HAYSTACK LANDING - SAVE OUR PARK.

Please e-mail us if you can commit to coming to Tolay on SAT morning to assist us. Please be able to arrive by 9:30 am.

In 1994 Dutra Construction Co. began contracted work with the Port of Miami, dredging a section of the shipping channel in Biscayne Bay, a “shallow subtropical lagoon with diverse habitat including mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs. Manatees, crocodiles, sea turtles, and many important fish species also share the immediate marine environment with the port.”1 This “rich marine habitat”1 was severely damaged by Dutra’s illegal dredging and destruction of “3.5 acres of seagrass outside of the permitted dredging area.”2 “in violation of county, state, and federal laws.”3 “This is the largest unauthorized sea-grass-destruction case ever investigated by DERM [Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management],” declared biologist Craig Grossenbacher, chief of DERM's coastal resources section. “At the very least there was gross negligence.”3 Grossenbacher also stated that “We now know this illegal dredging occurred between 1995 and 1997.”3 “To make matters worse, the excavation, funded by taxpayers, led to illegal dumping of the coral rock and dredge materials.”2 In 1997 Dutra stopped work and filed for bankruptcy.3

“Later that year Lunetta [the Port of Miami Director] resigned amid a federal investigation charging him and two businessmen at the port with embezzlement, fraud, and theft of funds. But before he left, Lunetta approved $9.9 million in payments to Dutra for work it never completed.”3 “Dutra workers returned to the channel in January of [1999] after the county made a deal with Safeco, a company that had insured the dredging project. Safeco agreed to finance a resumption of the dredging and to reimburse the port for the $9.9 million Dutra had overbilled.”3

It was in February of 1999 that DERM discovered the illegal dredging in Biscayne Bay and the “eighteen mysterious piles of coral rock on the ocean bottom”3 illegally dumped outside the federally authorized offshore disposal site. “In April 1999 DERM issued violation notices to Dutra chairman Bill Dutra, port director Charles Towsley, and Luis Ajamil of Bermello Ajamil and Partners (B&A),”3 the engineers of record. In mid-1999 Dutra “pulled out of the job, saying its arsenal could not compete with the resilience of coral rock,”3 despite the fact that they had previously “removed several football fields worth of seagrass and coral rock”1 illegally.

The illegal dredging led to a lawsuit: Miami-Dade County v. Safeco Insurance Company, Bill Dutra, Harry K. Stewart and George W. Gilfillan which alleged civil fraud and breach of contract.5 In this case, ‘No.: 98-17437 CA 20 United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida”5, tried in the Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the County sought $40 million in damages and settled for $22.5 million.6

The damage to Biscayne Bay cannot be directly mitigated because “the water was 2 to 5 feet deep where the sea grass was destroyed, now the area is 30 feet deep - unsuitable for sea grass.” 4 Therefore, the settlement money will be used for other environmental projects, including mitigating “62.5 acres with red mangroves within the Oleta River State Park, North Miami.”2

3: “A Hole So Foul” By Kirk Nielsen, Miami New Times, Sept. 7, 2000

4: Miami Group, Sierra Club Conservation Archives: 2000 “Port of Miami Violations” Editorial by Nancy Lee

5: Website of AFC Group, Litigation and Valuation Advisory Services

The Carousel Fund Run/Walk will be a great way to show off the 171 acres of Petaluma's newly restored wetlands including the new Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility and Shollenberger Park. It is a small charge of $10.00 per person or $25.00 per family for the event. 100% of the entry fees go directly to the Carousel Fund.

DATE
September 27, 2009, 8:30am start

LOCATION AND PARKING
Race starts and finishes at the Ellis Creek entrance at 3890 Cypress Drive. Parking is limited, so please arrive early to allow time to find a spot.

START TIMES
Registration & Check-in: 7:30—8:15am
Both races start at 8:30am
Awards ceremony will begin after 10K race concludes

BENEFICIARY
100% of race entry fees go directly to the Carousel Fund. The Carousel Fund is an all volunteer organization dedicated to assisting Petaluma families with children who suffer from catastrophic illnesses.

DIVISIONS AND AWARDS
•10K Awards: Medals to top three males and females. Ribbons for age groups M & F : 0-12, 13-18, 19-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70+
•5K Awards: Medals to top three males and females.
•Participation ribbons for children.

REGISTRATION & CHECK-IN
Save money and time by registering early - in store at Athletic Soles in downtown Petaluma, or by mailing this registration form by September 23rd. Race day registration: 7:30—8:15am. On facebook? Confirm your attendance and support here!

Click here for a PDF flyer which includes registration information

As more and more people learn about the invaluable restoration of the varied marsh habitats at Shollenberger Park, we are finding that even the City of Petaluma's Water Department maintenance staff has much to learn. Over the past 25 years, maintenance crews around the globe are re-learning how to provide for fire, weed, safety, road and flood management without damaging the existing important wildlife habitat along creeks, marshes, forests and waterfronts. So, this learning starts at home. Recent mowing of trail berms by Water Dept. staff has now become a "teachable moment" as acknowledged by the City.

We are encouraged by the City's response and look forward to management practices for next year and years to come that meet the multiple objectives needed in such an important and complex project.

Photo by Gerald Moore

If we don't stop the Dutra Group from building this plant, this will be everyone's "welcome" to Petaluma and Sonoma County.

“As previously mentioned, the entire area surrounding the project site west of Highway 101 is designated with a Scenic Resource zoning overlay. Application of the Visual Assessment Guidelines indicates that development of the project site would result in visual dominance of the area, which in combination with the high sensitivity assessment, would result in a significant impact to visual resources.”

~ Dutra Environmental Impact Report
(Vol. 1, V.A. Aesthetics pg. 25)

Please explore the links to the right for ways to help stop this plant from happening.

Shirlee Zane and Valerie Brown were each strong and determined in their voice voting to deny the Dutra asphalt project, however Efren Carrillo switched sides and voted to allow the project to live for another day.

EMAIL EFREN AND LET HIM KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS

CONTACT EFREN ON HIS FACEBOOK PAGE FOR AN EXPLANATION

Dutra's concessions do nothing to answer the jurisdictional issue of whether County Supervisors have the right to re-zone, to industrial use, the parcels located in a voter mandated scenic view corridor. Only the voters can change this zoning designation. Lowering the production capacity of the plant lessens, but does not eliminate the toxic impacts of this asphalt production facility on a wildlife preserve, 22 schools, hundreds of residences, and 150,000 visitors (and growing) to Shollenberger park per year. Foregoing the recycling part of production still leaves recycled tires (used for rubberized asphalt) in piles on the property. Excessive noise is still created at the barge unloading site and will still require amending the General Plan to allow Dutra to exceed the county noise limits.

So what does Dutra gain and why does Supervisor Carrillo want to reconsider his NO straw vote of June 9th? Dutra gains time to wear out the community's opposition. But they underestimate our staying power - For Friends of Shollenberger and all of the other Environmental and Community organizations this isn't about profits, it’s about future generations. With that long view, we will never stop fighting to preserve and protect Shollenberger Park. There is no compromise possible with a company whose environmental record is as worrisome as Dutra's.

We hope Supervisor Carrillo will reject the project at the next “Final Vote”, knowing that he went the extra mile for the applicant and its supporters in the construction and aggregate industries, but voting to reflect the wishes of his 5th District.

Dear Friends of Shollenberger Park,

This Tuesday, July 21st at 2:00 PM (please arrive at 1pm) the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will cast their final vote for or against the Dutra Company building an asphalt plant across from Shollenberger Park.

RSVP AT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

At the last meeting three supervisors expressed, in a straw vote, their opposition to the plant while two for it. They could not vote it down at that time because this balance was unexpected and they did not have a resolution of denial prepared, which is apparently needed for a final no vote.

On Tuesday they will have two resolutions prepared, one to approve the project, and one to deny it. Despite their most recent straw vote opposing the asphalt plant, we are very concerned that one of the tentative no-voters will change their mind and vote for the project. Therefore, it is very important we see a turn out in huge numbers to ensure that no one on the County board decide to change their vote. Please give us one final push in defeating this project, which is the wrong plant in the wrong place...run by the wrong company.

Please join us at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors chambers at 575 Administration Drive, Room 100A in Santa Rosa this Tuesday and help sway the vote with your presence. Plan to arrive by 1PM so you can secure a spot in the chamber.

Interested in carpooling? Meet us at our headquarters at Noon on Tuesday. HQ located at 322 Western Ave., in Petaluma.


See you there!!

We are extremely excited to bring you "The Making of the Save Shollenberger Group Photo" starring Scott Hess (and us all!) Thanks Scott!!