Dear Friends,

The Plan Bay Area proponents finally announced on their onebayarea.org website late Saturday afternoon that the draft EIR would be released tomorrow, April 2. The draft EIR can be found at this site when it is made available to the public:

http://onebayarea.org/regional-initiatives/plan-bay-area/draft-plan-bay-area/supplementary-reports.html

Bay Area Citizens continues to recommend that you consider offering comments on the Plan at the Plan Bay Area Town Hall, and we urge citizens of all points of view to do so. We are for a robust, free, and open debate, and welcome all views, including those of folks who support the Plan.

http://onebayarea.org/misc/open-town-hall.html

Please don’t assume by our recommending that you do so, though, that we believe it is likely your comments will be listened to, let alone have an impact on the Plan. We have spoken with too many people who have attended hearings on the Plan, or provided written comments on the record, who have reported overwhelming public opposition to the Plan. According to these citizens, their comments and concerns in opposition to the Plan have fallen on deaf ears, and have had no impact on the planners’ actions, or on the Plan itself.

But it’s important to make the voices of the citizens known, if we are only documenting here for future reference when the general public finally becomes aware what is happening here, and begins to make its voice known—as it assuredly will.

We also encourage you to read the comments that have been made thus far. They appear to be very similar to the range of comments that have been made at public hearings and submitted in writing. For example, the following comment was entered to the Plan overall in the first section, and is representative of the comments in opposition to the Plan. All the comments thus far--from whatever point of view--are similar to this one, and are well stated, heartfelt, and thoughtful.

Name not shown in Novato

March 29, 2013, 9:16 AM

Plan Bay Area takes highly questionable assumptions and projections, then inflates these into a utopian vision. In practical terms, Plan Bay Area amounts to a persecution of the middle class suburban population with over-regulation, high taxes, and micro-management of our lifestyles. The population and job growth assumptions are obviously inflated in order to justify the whole structure. The environmental assumptions are equally questionable, since global warming theory continues to lose scientific support.
Given this kind of bureaucratic over-reach, it's no surprise that California has the worst business climate of any of the 50 states. It's estimated that 250,000 businesses have left California in the last 10 years. We're losing population, too. For the first time since statehood, California lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives due to out-migration. The people who leave are mostly middle class taxpayers, homeowners, and small business owners. As a result, California is becoming increasingly bi-polar, a state with a small number of very wealthy residents, a shrinking middle class, and a swelling population of low income residents who depend on taxpayer subsidies. This is unsustainable.

Plan Bay Area purports to be all about sustainability, but the exact opposite is true.