Earth Day Actions at the County- Support Sustainability and Native Plants on May 5th

Escondido Neighbors United is happy to support the following actions by our new Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer,

Check out these MAJOR POSITIVE actions that are being proposed for the County. 

In honor of Earth Day, we are doing more than celebrating our planet, in partnership with Supervisor Fletcher and Supervisor Vargas respectively, I'm bringing forward three policies that will bring major changes to how the county operates:  

• ALL County departments will create and implement Sustainability Plans, to advance  sustainability in all aspects of how we work
• Explore how to restructure the County from top to bottom to center sustainability in all our operations 
• Launch a Native Plants Landscaping Policy, the first of its kind in the country, to safeguard our precious local biodiversity 

These would be major shifts in how the County operates so we need a big grassroots push to try to rally the votes to get these policies passed. We need your help to get these policies across the finish line.

 For the ENU Felicita Park gardening team, item 7 is a match made in heaven.  This will put us on an even stronger track to increase supply and use of native plants in our beloved park.

Please submit an e-comment today or speak in support of these policies at the virtual meeting on Wednesday, May 5th.

These actions to increase sustainability, equity, environmental justice, habitat protection and native plant landscaping will be heard by the Supervisors on May 5th where the Board will consider moving forward with these actions.

PLEASE help us make this a reality.  Please be sure you read these the staff reports and file a Board comment of support for the May 5th meeting.

Staff reports start on Page 19

Agenda item 6, 7, and 8 – Here is where to make your comments.

 

 

Growing Coalition Opposes Sprawl Development Harvest Hills

Over 40 local community, climate, labor, environmental justice, and conservation organizations sent a letter today to the Escondido City Council recommending milestones to be achieved prior to the city moving forward with any consideration of Harvest Hills.

​The letter outlines significant policy conflicts between the proposed project, San Diego County, and Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) policies, fire disaster prevention, and formalized and proposed habitat plans. 

The best overview can be seen on this 2-minute video https://fb.watch/3Fnt49v6uX/ and a petition to sign to join the opposition.

Harvest Hills proposes to radically expand the wildland/urban interface and, if constructed, would threaten local and on-site residents and the world-famous Safari Park in the event of fire.

In the three years since the DEIR comment period was closed, several important actions have not been taken and new policies and more visible realities have worsened the prospects of this project. 

Locating sprawl development in a Very High Fire Severity Zone is increasingly being opposed by​ our organizations,​ local residents, and the California Attorney General. 

The organizations urge the City to require the following actions prior to advancing the CEQA review and rendering a decision on the project at the City:

1.      The Annexation Agreement needed to proceed with LAFCO Sphere of Influence and annexation decisions is fully executed;

2.      A favorable position for the project has been adopted by the County of San Diego demonstrating that incompatibilities are resolved;

3.      A full and detailed economic impact analysis is completed which makes transparent to existing residents and taxpayers the unfunded costs of this project, including an analysis of fiscal impact of a partially completed project; and,

4. The new City Manager is installed at the Cit​y.