We were a bit in shock after the RWC Planning Commission meeting. Amazing stall tactics with a filibuster discussion of whether the RWC Costco should be allowed to increase their gas pumps by one island or two. Three hours–yes–three whole hours of that…I was beginning to think that it is possible for the RWCPC to consider things in depth, after all, they spent 3 hours on something seemingly pretty straightforward. Then, they showed us that no, they were just stalling. The lengthy Costco discussion created a situation in which the Pete’s Harbor project wasn’t even starting discussion until something like 10:30 pm. The PC decided that they’d hear the presentation of the project and EIR and only public comments from those who couldn’t attend the next PC meeting (Oct 30th).
We listened to a high level presentation by staff liaison Blake Lyon, and then the expected supporting statement from the land owner Uccelli turned into a very strange monologue about the tenants of Pete’s Harbor rather than the expected benefits of the project to the RWC. While puzzling over that, we then were subjected to a monologue by Uccelli’s lawyer which meandered but one intent was to discredit liveaboard boaters. When much of the public present unconsciously and collectively gasped at one point, the PC Chair admonished the public that there would be no such outbursts or he’d just shut down the meeting. The developer did get to give a high level presentation but no serious discussion of the EIR or additional unmitigated impacts was had. A few people who couldn’t be at the Oct 30th PC meeting made 3 minute public comment. Most were friends of the land owner Uccelli and a couple were interested public in support of keeping Pete’s Harbor, the landmark that it is, here in some way. The rest of the public comments will be heard on October 30th, 2012. I’ve attached a .pdf (link here) of the lengthy letter that we gave to the RWC PC before the meeting. We were unable to comment so didn’t actually present the single thing we were most interested in–the unmitigated impact to boaters of RWC because the slip situation has changed significantly since the original 2003 EIR was performed.
The next RWC PC meeting is Oct 30th and we’ll certainly be writing about it at that time.
