Anti-MROSD Op-Ed by Deborah Ettinger

November 15, 2002
Deborah Ettinger
La Honda

Dear Editor
    The proposed annexation of the Coastside by Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District was the topic at the South Skyline Association (SSA) meeting Nov.14, at the ranger station on Skyline.  The vast majority of the very vocal SSA residents who attended were opposed to it.

     Why? They didn't want the increased swatches of untended, poorly managed land; they didn't need the tax increase and loss of revenue it would mean to their local schools and businesses; and they didn't like the aggressive and sometimes manipulative means MROSD implements to acquire land through ``eminent domain".

     In short, they just didn't trust MROSD as managers of the Coastside.  I suggest that ``all" current MROSD taxpaying residents think twice before you allow MROSD and other behind-the- scenes self described environmental groups to cast a net over the entire Coastside. We already have the California Coastal Commission and extensive regulatory controls in place. MROSD has NO Watershed Resource Management Plan after thirty years in existence and spends less than 1% of their revenues on land stewardship.

     Contact the farm bureau or Supervisor Richard Gordon.  Coastsiders, don't give up your control of  your coastal homelands to special interest groups, or it becomes their Coastside.