Developers steamroll their way through GMA

The Nov. 30 article, “Keeping houses in reach,” had a quote from the McNaughton Group’s lawyer that was very irritating. He indicates that the public have not been participating in the process of deciding those areas that will have more dense development as dictated by the Growth Management Act. Give me a break!

Developers have invested a vast amount of money over the last 10 years in candidates favorable to development like Jeff Sax. Then, they orchestrated legislation through the Land Use Code to undermine and bypass the GMA.

Three examples in North County alone:

The Island Crossing debacle that gave Dwayne Lane permission to pave over floodplain and farmland in direct violation of GMA. In order to prevent irresponsible sprawl and make the county comply with the GMA, this issue is going to the state Supreme Court.

The second example is the SoundView development in the Warm Beach area, which allows 100-plus condominiums to be built on a sensitive hillside in a designated rural area. This development was specifically excluded from the GMA by an amendment to Land Use Code 6A. How this outrageous piece of legislation got on the books several years ago, no one seems to know.

Now, the McNaughton Group plans to build a huge housing development on 3,000 rural acres and claims an exemption because the Land Use Code was once again amended to exempt self-contained cities from the GMA.

The public depends on elected representatives to look out for our interests. Instead, they have been advocating the interests of developers. By the time the public becomes aware of what is happening it is too late and developers just steamroll their way through and crush the opposition with the help of the county Planning Commission.

Carol Ronken