Water Conservation Hypocrisy

This lake near San Luis Obispo, California barely contains any water following a several year drought.  Photo courtesy U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

The ever helpful nanny state types have invaded my neighborhood app, called Next Door, with tips about saving water.  Of course, there was no discussion about why we don't have any water and why agriculture is dying in California.  Since the hypocritical nanny-staters didn't allow me to comment on their post, I am responding here.


I muted the discussion topic "Waste No Water" because they closed any discussion of their post. The fact is that California is suffering more from this drought because of the stupidity of past kowtowing to the environmental movement that killed reservoir projects. Victor Davis Hanson has a great  summary on the The City Journal web site.

Just as California’s freeways were designed to grow to meet increased traffic, the state’s vast water projects were engineered to expand with the population. Many assumed that the state would finish planned additions to the California State Water Project and its ancillaries. But in the 1960s and early 1970s, no one anticipated that the then-nascent environmental movement would one day go to court to stop most new dam construction, including the 14,000-acre Sites Reservoir on the Sacramento River near Maxwell; the Los Banos Grandes facility, along a section of the California Aqueduct in Merced County; and the Temperance Flat Reservoir, above Millerton Lake north of Fresno. Had the gigantic Klamath River diversion project not likewise been canceled in the 1970s, the resulting Aw Paw reservoir would have been the state’s largest man-made reservoir. At two-thirds the size of Lake Mead, it might have stored 15 million acre-feet of water, enough to supply San Francisco for 30 years. California’s water-storage capacity would be nearly double what it is today had these plans come to fruition.

If these groups so concerned about the drought's effects would work to increase the state's reservoir capacity I might not ignore them for their hypocrisy. I have cut back my water usage by over 40%, but the state is killing jobs by not reserving water for farms and industry. I don't think the state can thrive without agriculture.

San Diego Planning Follies

From the U-T:

The City Council voted 6-3 on Monday to reject plans to build three homes on the Jessop estate in Point Loma, adding to the single one built in 1926.
. . .
"When you have properties this big, you shouldn't be putting the houses 12 feet apart," said Council President Sherri Lightner, adding that the design would make firefighting difficult. "I have grave concerns about public safety."
Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, whose district includes Point Loma, said she could support adding­ development to the site, but not this particular proposal for La Crescentia Drive because of the locations of the new homes.
Monday's council vote was actually in favor of a res­ident's appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval of the proposed subdivision last June.
. . .
The owner of the property, Carolyn Kutzke, has been trying for several years to develop it.

The OBRag has more background on the story.  Apparently, there were 700 signatures on a petition to overturn the planning commission vote.  I think that Carolyn Kutzke should sue under the takings clause of the U.S. Constitution if she is not given a way ahead to develop her 1.5 acre property.

I hope that the city council is as fearful of resident's dismay when they vote on jamming dense development into the Morena district.  I am sure there will be far more than 700 people willing to sign a petition.  In the meantime, the council approved the path ahead to change the Bay Park community plan bypassing an update of the entire community plan.  This is a process foul that didn't go unnoticed by RaiseTheBalloon:

While we appreciate that the city threw out the original timeline to complete the Morena Blvd Area Specific Plan and replaced it with a more reasonable one, Raise the Balloon and residents of our community have made a formal protestation of the City’s attempt to change/amend our community plan through the Morena Blvd Station Area Specific Plan instead of updating our ENTIRE plan through the process of a comprehensive community plan update (CPU).

Meanwhile, all that money that the city collects from developers to make your neighborhood better?  It's not getting spent.  Apparently $78 million isn't enough cash to start a real project.  From the U-T watchdog:

Developers have paid more than $157 million in impact fees since San Diego approved the charges on new construction in the 1980s, and despite a litany of needs the city has spent only half the money, budget records show.
The money was collected from builders in some of San Diego’s oldest neighborhoods, with the idea that they should contribute to community needs such as parks and fire stations. Much of the money has remained in the bank for years while city planners save up for projects or figure out how it should be spent.
In the downtown district alone, the city has assembled $25 million. The city has not completed an impact fee-funded project in that area in more than 10 years, although officials have spent more than $400,000 of the funds on administration.
Citywide, $78 million of the money collected so far has not been spent, as of June 2014, the most recent accounting available.

Creative way to waste tax dollars? Don't spend it.