Environmental Alert: Action Needed To Save Santa Rosa Lands On June 5

Environmental Alert: Action Needed To Save Santa Rosa Lands On June 5

Help save our lands

From: Beverly Schenck

Mesa distributing Company has decided it wants to build a massive distributing company of 164,000 square feet.
This building would be surrounded by agricultural land on three sides. The amount of traffic at 3200 Laughlin Rd. will increase 1,100 trips per day. The operations of this facility will be open 24 hours a day seven days a week. In the past year Mesa has sold two of it's largest facilities one in Sacramento and the other in San Diego to food distributors.
What long term plans does this corporation have for their Santa Rosa facility?
We have met with the planners on several occasions trying to resolve the impacts. The planning commission has approved the project. The facility is located along the Mark West Creek and a 100 foot set back has been accepted. I feel that this size of project should require an Environmental Impact Report. During our last meeting with the Planning Commission under the guidance of Sharon Wright who felt that an Mitigated Declaration is sufficient. I believe when the meeting with the planners on February 7, 2008 began Mesa along with some of the planners had already made up their minds. During the meeting I found Sharon to be combative and bullied the rest of the panel. When one of the planners questioned why not an EIR she belittled him into making a decision. While I'm not an aggressive individual and do not have a record of any kind. Not even a traffic ticked for the past thirty years. Mesa decided to hire the Santa Rosa police department to have an officer sit behind me.
We had a meeting with the board of Supervisors on May 13, 2008 . Our next meeting in front of the Board of Supervisors I believe on June 5, 2008 at 5pm. The last of our arguments will be heard before their decision on June 10, 2008.
The traffic is going to be critical to my case and my attorney is having an extremely hard time finding a traffic consultant. For over a year this has cause me great stress and financially has become a burden. The reason why this is truly important to me is my home was built in 1850. I brought it back to life while I was pregnant with my daughter Mariana. My grandmother along with my mother who have passed help to make this a home. I fell in love with this home in 1986 and have been working on it ever since. It a two story yellow old farm house and it's mine. The grounds have been farmed for the past one hundred and fifty years. I believe the Pomo's once live on these lands because of the artifacts that were found. The creek is beautiful and peaceful you can walk alone forever with no one in sight. That is why I feel the need to try to protect the land and it's habitats.
The wild animals along the creek will be subjected to diesel fumes and noise. During the time the land floods the company is allowed to release their waste waters into the creek. This creek has migration birds like the white tailed kite and is spawning grounds for the steal head fish and the fresh water otter. I love this land and have respected and taken care of it, and it has taken care of me. We planted a small two acre vineyard and have learned to respect our land. To have a facility of this magnitude come in and slowly destroy our environment along with my families home is a crime. It is like standing by and watching a family member or friend dying and not able to do anything for them.
I'm not just asking I'm pleating for help. All of my other resource are dwindling and I'm really frighten that I will have to live next door to a company that only cares about their profit while my neighbors and commuters along with the animals will be forced to deal with the Planners decision to allowed this facility to be built. I hope this will help to describe my experience and the need for help. thank you, Beverly Schenck
707-546-5605
Beverly Schenck
This is a generic letter i have sent it out to other organizations
in hopes that someone will listen and help. thanks