CEQA Suit Attempts to Block Field & Pond
The Board of Supervisors twice had to approve an event permit for the Field & Pond event…
Technicality Sends Field & Pond Back to the BOS
Back in mid-September, following a long and contentious meeting, the Board of Supervisors agreed to a compromise,…
Field & Pond Has Found Its Home in Winters
by Dahvie James By now you have probably heard about the Board of Supervisors 4-1 vote to…
Board of Supervisors Allow Field & Pond Appeal to Go Through on a 4-1 Vote
After two hours of public comment that seemed relatively evenly divided between those who supported the Field…
County Board Will Decide Fate of Field & Pond on Tuesday
The County Board of Supervisors will make a final determination on the contentious Field & Pond event…
Guest Commentary: Field & Pond Owners Respond to Recent Article
by Dahvie James and Philip Watt We are concerned that information that was published in the Winters…
Tuleyome’s Letter Opposing a Negative Declaration at Field & Pond
Following the Vanguard’s article on Wednesday on the Field & Pond dispute, Bob Schneider submitted Tuleyome’s letter…
Idyllic Bed and Breakfast Becomes the Subject of a Bitter Land Use Dispute
Dahvie James sits on a chair in the living room of the main building in the Field…
County Potentially Looking For More of a Take From Annexation Projects
Last week the Yolo County Board of Supervisors approved a proposed annexation policy framework that may be…
Sunday Commentary: Saylor Tries to Get Hands in Davis’ Economic Development
For those who missed it, emerging out of the city-county two-by-two is a very ominous sign for…
Supervisor Saylor Pushes For More County Involvement in Davis’ Economic Development Initiative
At the last council meeting, Chief Innovation Officer Rob White, at midnight, presented a staff report asking…
City and County Butt Heads Over Tower
City Clarifies Position in Recent Letter as County Recommends Denial of Appeal –
The city and county will come to blows today, at least metaphorically speaking, over a one-year extension of a use permit for a 365-foot radio tower at the landfill site.
The county staff report is recommending the extension of the use permit for one year and a denial of the appeal filed by Eileen Samitz.
Guest Commentary: KDVS Needs the Landfill Tower
by Neil Ruud
The current KDVS radio tower on Kerr Hall causes telecommunication interference and is not tall enough to legally protect KDVS’ signal beyond the immediate area. In 1996, KDVS’s staff started researching potential sites to build a taller tower and legally protect its listeners in Yolo County and beyond.
Throughout this 15 year process, other radio stations have encroached on KDVS’ airwaves. Already there is an automated out-of-state mini-station in eastern Sacramento preventing many of our dedicated listeners from hearing KDVS. This will soon be a reality in other parts of the valley, including some parts of Yolo County. Without an expanded legal area of protection, KDVS is powerless to protect reception for existing listeners.
Guest Commentary: Radio Tower Represents a Threat To Environment
Radio Tower proposal threatens wetland birds. Bright, white strobes would bring impacts on community
By Eileen M. Samitz, Pam Nieberg and Alan Pryor
On December 6th, the Davis City Council will consider a resolution by the Open Space and Habitat Commission strongly opposing a proposal by Results Radio, a Santa Rosa radio conglomerate, to build a new tower at the Yolo County Central Landfill. The proposed tower, at 365 feet, will be taller than the Statue of Liberty. This massive structure will be 30 feet at its base and have three extremely bright white strobe lights (one at the top and two at the 200 foot level). These strobe lights are required by new FAA regulations, and would create much more visual pollution than any other tower in Yolo County. Each of the three strobes would flash 40 times per minute, 24 hours a day at an intensity of 20,000 candelas during daytime, dawn, and dusk, and 2,000 candelas at night – creating unacceptable blight on the northern border of Davis.
Wildlife experts have concluded that because the proposed tower is located in the heavily-used Pacific Flyway adjacent to the Davis Wetlands Project and the Vic Fazio Wildlife Area, the disorienting effects of the strobe lights on birds would cause unacceptable bird deaths due to numerous bird collisions. To add insult to injury, Results Radio wants to locate their visual and environmental blight in Yolo County, but move their offices and jobs to Sacramento!
Serious Opposition From Community-Based Environmental Groups To Proposed Radio Tower
Opponents of a 365-foot radio tower, that in September 2010 the Yolo County Board of Supervisors approved to be located at the county landfill, argue such communications towers kill millions of birds annually.
This tower will be near a number of sensitive locations, including the City of Davis wetlands, Willow Slough, and near the Yolo Bypass wildlife area, “all of which provide foraging, nesting and breeding habitat for thousands of migratory and resident bird populations year-round.”
Applicant Proposes to the County A Solar Farm For Davis Periphery
Saylor Names Vergis to County Planning Commission –
Saylor Names Vergis to County Planning Commission – Yolo County has its own planning commission which consists of seven members. Each Board member gets to appoint one Commissioner from their district to the board and there are two at-large commissioners that are voted in by all Board Members.
Earlier this month, Supervisor Don Saylor used his appointment to name two-time, former Davis City Council Candidate Sydney Vergis to the planning commission.
Why Would Saylor Vote Against the County Climate Action Plan?
It was a strange vote and discussion on the County’s Climate Action Plan. It is important to understand that the County’s Climate Action Plan only addresses “greenhouse gas emissions within the unincorporated area, which has seen very little population growth since 1990 as a result of the County’s historic land use policies.”
Moreover, “Although the inventories of the unincorporated area identify agriculture as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, when placed in a broader perspective, farming accounted for only 14% of the countywide emissions in 1990.”
Commentary: Justifying the County Conaway Vote
It was an interesting week at the county level, as watching the Conaway Ranch water agreement vote was so instructive. The problems that this agreement presents for the Yolo Basin are troubling, as laid out by both Supervisors Jim Provenza and Duane Chamberlain. This agreement threatens wildlife and agriculture and also threatens to compromise the spillway’s flood control capacity.
It was a week in which we saw Senator Lois Wolk come forward to the Board of Supervisors with a modest proposal, and the Board basically did not give the Senator the time of day. It is not that they rejected her proposal, it is that they failed to even discuss it.
Supervisors Ignore Senator Wolk’s Concerns; Rubber Stamp Conaway Ranch Agreement
The Board of Supervisors went into the meeting on February 8, where the issue of the Conaway Ranch Agreement was revisited, acknowledging that the meeting was in place not to revisit substantive concerns but rather to deal with the formal issue of erring on the side of caution, regardless of whether the first meeting violated the Brown Act.
But if the first meeting did violate the Brown Act, this one may have as well because the Board of Supervisors really was not taking in new information and opening up a true public process, instead it was rubber stamping the results of the previous meeting.
Group Files Suit Challenging CEQA Exemption to County Water Agreements
A newly-formed Environmental Group, CARES (“Citizens Alliance for Regional Environmental Sustainability”), has filed a writ in Yolo Superior Court that requests the court direct The Yolo County Board of Supervisors to vacate and rescind approval of the Notice of Exemption and the Agreement by which the Board of Supervisors determined on December 17, with regards to Conaway Ranch, that those agreements are exempt from CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act).
The petition alleges that the Board of Supervisor’s approval “based upon a Notice of Exemption, violates the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (‘CEQA’), Public Resources Code, section 21000 et seq.”
