A Few Thoughts From Mark Wells

I need to be honest and state that I feel had Mr. Jack Baric been at the CAC meeting, I believe the second motion would not have been passed in the way it was written.

With my background of considering compromise prior to May 29, I feel Jack was and is a very important member of the CAC for many reasons.

I think Jack also wanted to work for a compromise plan. He was passionate with his comments, thoughts, and feelings throughout the time of the CAC.

He asked questions based on information he wanted to learn and he worked extremely hard at being the best he can be while serving on the CAC.

We can't know what Jack might have done tonight, but I feel that the vote and or the motion would have been different had he been able to attend.

I know well that Jack had some real troubles with Bob's plans yet he did inquire of Bob on many issues and he really attempted to look for numbers and ideas that could have been used for some kind of compromise.

Without Jack, the folks who looked for a true density compromise didn't have a vote there to alter the motion or at least make a better statement.

Last month some of us calculated that there were five members of the CAC that would vote for R1. We figured on two members supporting a high density development and as it panned out, we got to see how those two voted, tonight.

With five votes for R1, that left eight votes for something other than R1 and I was thinking that those eight votes would be enough to suggest a density that would allow for between 900-1200 units. I think Jack would have been a driving force to use with other votes to get that through.

But it seems that Mr. Gaines and Mr. Greenwood, along with Mr. Dixon were so fed up with Bob, perhaps nothing Jack could have done would have been enough. But I do think he always used reasoning to suggest a compromise that was never to be.
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I was amazed to listen to Mr. Jerry Gaines and Mr. John Greenwood tonight. They sounded completely disgusted with Bob's plans and Bob for not bringing forth even a mention of a set of numbers that could have been reasonable to them. They seemed to echo what many other frustrated individuals wanted to say to Bob and Ms. Hahn.
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I fear that we may lose a good source of community input if the CAC ends its mission on August 20. I think community members should have the best access possible to information and to air their opinions. With this blog I and contributors and folks who comment have the opportunity to share, but there are more folks who don't read this thing in our community that have opinions and with to share them.

One way, in the future you may wish to learn and be heard is at the meetings of the Northwest and Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Councils. If you want to visit Central, you are welcome to, but it may take them a couple of months to get themselves up to the level that Northwest and Coastal already are as far as their own infrastructure goes.

We all should keep ourselves and others informed as the issue passes from the CAC, through the Planning Department and on the way to the Planning Commission.

I think the next big item to be published is the Final Environmental Impact Report which should include all the comments made on the Draft Environmental Impact Report. I do know of some very thought out comments from both Northwest S.P.N.C. and from the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. Of course I liked the three sets of comments I produced, but that is to be expected.
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