Boulevard community
board takes steps towards planning group
By Christy
Scott
The Alpine Sun
BOULEVARD — Something new for residents of the beautiful Back
Country town of Boulevard this year, as voters will have a chance
to weigh in on whether or not their local community board should
become an official planning group.
“I don’t see why anyone out here would vote no on
this,” said Boulevard Sponsor Group chairwoman Donna Tisdale. “I
think it’s going to be good for the community.”
When Boulevard residents go to the ballot box on Nov. 7
they will have the chance to vote to create a community planning
group, and then vote for some of the group’s members.
In a San Diego Board of Supervisors vote held earlier this year,
supes voted unanimously to support the proposal by District 2 rep
Dianne Jacob.
“Local planning is more responsive to local needs if
there is a high level of citizen participation in the planning
process,” said Jacob when she made the proposal in June. “These
are the people living out here, you all know the best what’s good
for your community.”
According to the proposal the vote by supervisors
directs the registrar of voters to put a measure on the ballot in
November, Proposition V, which will ask residents of Boulevard
whether they would like to form an elected planning group.
Residents will also weigh in on some of the candidates
for the new planning group.
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.
Tisdale and Stuart are running for re-election on Nov.
7, Whitaker however, is not. Other candidates vying for one of the
three opening on the board are: Darlene K. Koczka, Nazar Najor,
Jason Taylor, Mary J. Savary and Frankie Smith.
The four remaining members, and the new elected three
members, will make up the new seven-member Boulevard Planning
Group. In 2008 those odd-numbered seats will be up for election.
The current members of the sponsor group got their
seats by appointment from the board of supervisors. Members were
nominated at the community and county level, by peers, by
themselves or by officials, and the best candidates were chosen by
the supes. Planning group members are seated democratically during
an election.
Residents must approve the 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.
According to Jacob, the switch for the group will not
have much of a fiscal impact on the county. It will have effects
in other instances however.
“I think we’ll really be able to get things done,”
Tisdale said. “We’ll have a little more authority as an elected
board, rather than appointed.”
In the hierarchy of county politics planning groups in
the unincorporated areas of the county carry slightly more clout
than a sponsor group, officials realizing that members were
elected by the residents of the actual area. 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.
“The principal function of a planning or sponsor group
is to be an information linkage between the community and county
on matters dealing with planning and land use,” Jacob wrote in her
proposal.
According to policy I-1, which governs the workings of these
bodies, “planning and sponsor groups are designed to work closely
with the local citizenry to advise appropriate county departments
and hearing bodies on development proposals, rezones, general plan
amendments, and similar matters that impact their planning area.
This provides a formal structure for local representation to help
guide the course of growth within each planning area.”
According to I-1, any community organization in an area
where there is no elected planning group may seek designation by
the board of supervisors as a sponsor group, upon obtaining the
recommendation of the supervisor for their district.
Conduct and operation of the planning and sponsor
groups is governed by the I-1 policy, and the Brown Act, as well
as by Standing Rules that may be adopted by the groups. Standing
Rules may supplement this policy but may not supersede it in any
manner.
Planning and sponsor group members are not county
officials. They act in an advisory capacity to the Director of
Planning, the Zoning Administrator, the Planning Commission- , the
Board of Supervisors, and others involved in the county planning
process. Community issues not related to planning or land use are
not within the purview of these groups.
Kicking democracy off right, the Boulevard group will
host a special meet the candidates meeting on Thursday Oct. 5,
from 7-8 p.m., followed by the regularly scheduled Boulevard
Sponsor Group monthly meeting. This will be an opportunity for
residents to meet some of their local candidates and ask questions
prior to the November election.
Editor’s note: Keep
your eye on The Alpine Sun in coming weeks for profiles of the
local Boulevard candidates.
 E-mail
the Editor
|
|
