7 candidates vying
for 3 seats on new Boulevard board
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
BOULEVARD — Residents in the rural back Country town of
Boulevard will have a chance to vote for their local community
planning group representation in the election coming up Nov. 7.
Once Proposition V is passed, which is likely according
to current sponsor group members, the 750-plus voters of Boulevard
will have a chance to choose from seven candidates that are
running for three seats on the brand new planning group.
Prop V asks Boulevard voters whether they want an
elected planning group over the current appointed board.
The current sponsor group has seven members seated.
During the November election the three even numbered seats, 2, 4
and 6, will be up for re-election. These seats are currently
filled by chair Tisdale, Pat Stuart and Richard Whitaker.
The candidates are members Tisdale and Stuart, and
newcomers Frankie Smith, Darlene Koczka, Nazar Najor, Mary Savary
and Jason Taylor. The four remaining members, and the newly
elected three members, will make up the new seven-member Boulevard
Planning Group. In 2008 those odd-numbered seats will be up for
election.
Prior to the board’s regular meeting on Oct. 5, the
sponsor group held a candidate forum for residents in the area to
come and meet their candidates.
In the rocky hills and rolling fields of Boulevard
development is a major issue. The county, and other entities, has
set its sites on the Back Country area for housing developments as
well as development of wind farms, landfills, the gigantic Sunrise
Powerlink line and even the not so long-ago, ridiculous threat of
the new San Diego International Airport.
Projects like this, as well as densities on land
parcels, are major issues for the community. And, in the end, many
concerns come down to the rural quality of life; and water, water,
water. Almost all of the residents in Boulevard are fed off well
systems on their properties.
Darlene Koczka
Darlene Koczka is a fairly recent resident of
Boulevard, living in the area for two years. She has been
attending sponsor group meetings for the past year and has helped
raise money for the local volunteer fire department.
“I’m running for this position because I’ve been really
impressed with how the sponsor group handles the multitude of
issues that come before it,” Koczka said to residents. “This is
not an all about me group, it’s not an all about you group, it’s
an all about us, as a community.”
Koczka said that she is in favor of managed slow-growth
and would oppose projects that are so large as to threaten the
rural character of the town, and potentially, property values.
“We are endangered out here — there are plans and
projects targeted for Boulevard that don’t take into account
anything but someone’s pocketbook — not water, not roads, not our
rural way of life,” she said. “We all know that growth is
inevitable, but let us, as a community, control it.”
Nazar Najor
Nazar Najor is a 22-year resident of the area and the
owner of the Live Oak Springs Resort and the water system that
serves 138 customers in Live Oak Springs. Najor is continuing to
battle with the county over fines he was issued for failing to
maintain the water system. He currently has a lawsuit against the
county.
“I am extremely familiar with groundwater, housing,
employment and quality of life concerns facing our community,”
Najor said. “I understand the groundwater concerns in the area and
the local conditions because I work with the water system.”
Najor says that he believes that most Boulevard
residents want lower densities in the area, as low as 10-acre
lots, when the current General Plan 2020 calls for 80 acres.
“The 2020 plan is a little harsh and people’s lands and
properties will be dropping in value,” he said. “General Plan 2020
is not the solution. We need responsible dialogue that includes
the landowners whose property values may go down.”
Pat Stuart
Pat Stuart is a 24-year resident of Boulevard and
worked at the local post office before her retirement. She is a
current member of the sponsor group.
She dubs herself a pro slow-growth candidate and would
like to see Boulevard remain the rural town it is now.
“That’s really the reason I think most of us moved out
here,” she said.
Stuart supports the large density plans of GP2020 as a tool to
stave off major developments in the area.
“There’s about three landowners that own about 10,000
acres in Boulevard, and if just one of them is allowed to develop,
that could mean maybe 1,200 new homes, about 3,000 new people,”
Stuart said. “The infrastructure just isn’t here, the water isn’t
here.”
“There’s lots of stuff going on in Boulevard and it’s
really important that we know what’s happening and what’s going to
happen,” she said.
Donna Tisdale
Donna Tisdale is a 29-year resident of Boulevard and
the current chairwoman of the sponsor group.
“I sort of fell into the job of chair in 1991 — I
didn’t really want it,” Tisdale said to residents. “I still, I
think, would rather be able to stay at home, but I guess through
family genes I inherited a concern for community and wanting to be
active in the future of my community.”
Tisdale jumped into land-use politics in the area in
1989 when the first Campo Landfill project was proposed and she
created the Back Country Against Dumps organization.
“That was really a baptism by fire for me as to the
realities of the political world and how government decisions play
into our lives,” she said.
Tisdale is a slow-growth candidate and is very
concerned about water quantity and quality in the Back Country.
“Our water, infrastructure, law enforcement, fire —
these just can’t handle the growth that some people want out
here,” she said. “My record confirms my consistent work to protect
Boulevard’s rural character and resources.”
Frankie Smith
Frankie Smith is a 27-year resident of the area and was
a large part of getting Prop V on the ballot in November. She also
served previously on the sponsor group from 1987-90.
“I will work for the property rights of our citizens,
our infrastructure and getting our citizenry involved in the
process of planning our community,” Smith said at a forum held
last weekend at the Golden Acorn Casino. “It’s our job — not the
DPLU’s — to decide what happens in our town."
Smith also disagrees with the densities set by GP2020
and feels that there needs to be more commercial land
opportunities.
“There are too many large parcels for a country town
where we now have it designated, and with too few owners,” she
said.
Smith believes the sponsor has been wrong in
representing the community by agreeing with the county plans and
densities.
Candidates Mary Savary and Jason Taylor could not be
reached for input in this story.
Residents must approve the Prop V sponsor-to-planning
group change by a majority, more than 50 percent, in order for the
planning group to be created.
They will vote for members at the same time, and
supposing a positive outcome of the first, the board will be
formed.
Only registered voters living in the planning area are
eligible to be candidates and to vote in the election of the
planning group for that planning area.
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