Category — GOVERNMENT

Log on to the Summer Butte County Recyling E-Newsletter  for information on how to keep Butte County clean and green.

This month newsletter deals with:
- RECYCLING ON THE TRAIL, in the boat or tubing on the river
- ONCE IN THE BIN, THEN WHAT ?   The path your curbside recycled materials take
- SPECIAL WASTE: recycling USED OIL & OIL FILTERS
- RECYCLING PROFILE: Chico State Assoc. Students Recycling program

Read the full newsletter at :  http://www.buttecounty.net/RecycleButte.aspx

Questions, comments, suggestions ?  E-mail us at < recycle@buttecounty.net

The Esplanade League announces an important public hearing on June 22. The Chico City Council and Planning Commission will meet to consider the land use and sustainability components of the 2030 Chico General Plan update. This hearing is THE BIG ONE – the public’s best chance to influence our city’s guiding policies for the next 20 years.

Please read the following information and support our concerns at City Council chambers on June 22nd between 2:00 and 9:00 PM. Public input time is most likely between about 3 and 7.
 
The proposed new Plan needs a strong showing of public support because it includes great new sustainability policies, based on a sound, healthy, realistic community vision. However, for all its vision, many of its proposals are soft, with little assurance that they will be implemented. The expanded growth area proposals rely on unfounded assumptions that past housing demands will continue unabated and that the public’s funds will allow greater spending on freeways, big box stores and parking lots, even with a battered economy, massive debt, the looming impacts of climate change, and the ending era of cheap oil.
 
But most of the new policy language is weak, emphasizing words like “encourage” and “should,” rather than firm commitments backed by “will” or “shall.” It’s a great vision statement without a lot of teeth. Painful past experience has shown that General Plans seldom produce the desired results if they don’t include strong, enforceable commitments. Our planet’s failing life support systems can’t tolerate much more compromise, so the Council and Commission need to hear that mere encouragement is insufficient and that policies need to include much more “shall do” language.
 
Another major weakness is the assumption that retail consumption and housing demand for the next 20 years will continue much like the last, in spite of stagnant wages, overextended credit, tightened lending practices, and deteriorating public wealth and natural resources. Thus, the Plan assumes we’ll need thousands more large lot homes than already planned, more sprawl, and more regional shopping centers to accommodate an ongoing spending spree.

a)     In retail, there’s a sharp contradiction between a) the draft Land Use Element’s proposal for more regional shopping south along Highway 99 and b) the Sustainability Element’s emphasis on convenient neighborhood shopping, less need for driving, and reduced consumption of energy and resources. High consumption is fundamentally inconsistent with long-term environmental and social sustainability. Instead, sustainability requires a shift away from an oil-dependent, imported goods/exported jobs, consumption-based economy and toward more efficient, locally based production of food and goods. We don’t need more regional shopping malls on 99.

b)     In home buying patterns, the land use plan assumes that future demand for large lot houses will require thousands of lots sprawling into the Bell-Muir agricultural area in the northwest and the Schuster-Brouhard land in the foothills. However, past growth patterns no longer reliably predict future needs, given the rising cost of land and construction, reduced buying power, tighter lending, and shrinking household sizes. The National Home Builders Association expects aging baby boomers and younger generations on tighter budgets to demand cheaper, smaller, and/or attached homes; which recent building trends and the record number of undeveloped larger lots already reflect. The Sustainability Element, in contrast with the Land Use Element, wisely calls for more affordable compact growth and careful infill, with less sprawl, reduced auto dependency, and lower public maintenance costs.
 
Strong public support is needed for the Sustainability Element, scaling back the foothill and agricultural sprawl proposed by the Land Use Element, and firmer “shall” language throughout the Plan.
 
The draft General Plan update can be found on a link near the top of a City website at http://www.chicogeneralplan.com/.

Sincerely,

The Esplanade League – Supporting a Carefully Chosen Path for the Future

Hello,

My name is Kelly Sanders and I am introducing a new green energy saving amorphous metal heating technology to the North American market, that was developed for the Russian space program.

 These amorphous metal ribbons run on low voltage electicity and can be used under any type of flooring to heat indoors, and underground to keep ice and snow off of any surface.  We can heat agriculture, roads, ramps, bridges, runways, sidewalks, steps, roofs, fish ponds, sports fields, golf courses and more. This technology should effect many of the government depts like the dept of safety, dept of transportation, dept of defence, and the FAA to just mention a few. 

My company is called Americas Heating Solution and we are located at the Hwy 70 industrial park in Oroville in suite 5. We have a new web site to read about this technology and see the 15 countries in Europe that are using these products, you can also see some videos on under floor and underground installations.

We are currantly looking for local partners and or investors to help us to get this energy saving green heating solution to the people of North America. I have exclusive distribution and future manufacturing of these products for North America.

If you are interested in this technology please call me at (530) 532-0300. www.AHS-heating.com

Thank You Very Much.

RE-ELECT JANE DOLAN & MAUREEN KIRK AND STOP THE PRO-DEVELOPMENT CANDIDATES.

Hello breathers,

Next thursday, May 27th, the board of the Air Quality District will decide whether to support a letter requesting suspension of California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions law AB 32.   This Global Warming  law, opposed by big oil and some of Butte County’s elected officials, grants the state the rights to set emission standards and implement greenhouse gas guidelines. Additionally, the state will be able to promote alternative fuels and technologies by way of rebates and other incentives.   The focus of A.B. 32 is to drive down harmful emissions statewide with a goal of turning back the clock to emissions levels seen decades ago.

Unfortunately, this effort to suspend AB 32 seems to have some traction here in Butte County. If you don’t think that our Air Quality Board (or any Air Quality Board) should be opposing a statewide law that reduces harmful air pollution

1. Come speak up at the meeting. Chico City Council Chambers, 10.15 am thursday May 27th.

2. Write to the local papers and make some noise about how absurd this is.

Also, we are in need of some letters, emails and phone calls to Maureen Kirk and Jane Dolan.  At the moment, the county is refusing to even consider supporting the city’s efforts to reduce woodsmoke on the most polluted winter days.  What it will mean if the county doesn’t support the city ordinance is that whole sections of the city that happen to be unincorporated will continue to burn as usual.  This will make the process a real mess and make it very hard to reduce the particulate levels in the city as a whole.

Please email or call Maureen and Jane to let them that as Chico’s representatives on the Board of Supervisors, we would appreciate their support on this. Maybe they are concerned about losing votes in the upcoming election by supporting the city’s new air quality ordinance? Let them hear from people who vote for them that air quality is a priority

jane@janedolan.com Phone: (530) 891-2830

MKirk@buttecounty.net Phone: (530) 891-2800

Thanks for being active

Luke Anderson
Chico Healthy Air Alliance