San Francisco Business Times
Give voters final say to protect open space
By David Lewis
October 10, 2008

The Bay Area’s quality of life and economy benefit directly from the smart decisions our region has made to preserve open space from the bay shoreline to our hills. People want to live here and businesses want to locate here because we stopped the bay from being filled in and saved groves of redwoods and acres of pastures within our metropolis.

There is precious little open space left, and giving voters a final say on proposals to destroy it is essential to smart planning, not a barrier to it. The San Francisco Business Times’ editorial about Cargill and DMB’s plan to fill in more of San Francisco Bay for a huge shoreline development in Redwood City missed this point. (“Redwood City ‘Friends’ want to preclude planning,” Aug. 29-Sept. 4 issue).

Measure W is a City Charter Amendment that gives Redwood City voters the final say if the City Council approves development on open space, parks and baylands. Residents want this permanent guarantee that they can protect the city’s precious and limited open space lands, including the 1,433-acre salt pond site owned by Cargill.

Measure W encourages careful development by making the process explicit. After the environmental impact studies, planning department meetings and City Council debates, the public must vote to approve destruction of open space. If they know they need support from most of a city’s voters, developers and elected officials will craft only the best projects that can earn community consensus.

If well-heeled developers and unenlightened elected officials had their way in past decades, San Francisco Bay would be smaller, the Marin Headlands would be housing developments and Golden Gate Park would be a freeway. Because Redwood City citizens acted to protect open space, Bair Island is a wildlife refuge instead of an office park, and massive highrise towers are not stacked on the shoreline.

The ballot box didn’t “dumb down” the process — it saved these open-space gems for all of us to enjoy.

Nearly 20 percent of Redwood City’s voters signed petitions to qualify Measure W for the Nov. 4 ballot, and that has prompted Cargill and DMB to fund a desperate opposition campaign, built on lies and scare tactics. Smart local voters can see these ads are paid for by the Arizona developer and the Minnesota agribusiness giant who would profit by filling in the bay.

The era of filling San Francisco Bay and destroying precious open space should be long past. And with global warming’s expected impacts, it is foolish to build new developments at sea level where wetlands can be restored instead to provide natural flood control and efficiently capture greenhouse gasses.

Open space is a great legacy we must protect for future generations. Measure W is the best way to guarantee that Redwood City residents have the right to protect their parks, bay shoreline and open space from inappropriate development.

David Lewis is executive director of Oakland-based Save The Bay.