Public meeting on Dutra plant hosted by Assemblymember Jared Huffman!

Assemblymember Jared Huffman will host a public meeting to discuss the proposed Dutra asphalt plant at Haystack Landing. The meeting will be held at the Petaluma Veterans Building on May 30th from 9am to 11:30am.

WE NEED YOUR PARTICIPATION!!

The event will feature a panel of proponents, followed by a panel of experts from regulatory agencies and a panel of people with other perspectives on the plant, according to Huffman Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, State Senator Mark Leno, members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and members of the Petaluma City Council are all likely to be in attendance.

“It is my job to look at the bigger implications for the district,” said Huffman, who chairs the state Assembly’s Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife and is a member of the Committee on Natural Resources. “I want to understand if existing laws are working in this case. The project has caused such concern and is happening in a very sensitive location that is a habitat for wildlife.”

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HELP SPREAD THE WORD BY PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTING THIS FLYER (pdf document)

CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE VETERANS BUILDING IN PETALUMA

County Planning Commission Recommends Approval...Barely

The Sonoma County Planning Commission approved, by one vote (3-2), a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors to allow a text amendment to the General Plan so that proposed excessive noise from barge offloading by Dutra Materials, which exceeds County noise standards and cannot be mitigated, could be allowed. This action now moves the whole project proposal back to the Board of Supervisors for a decision on June 9th.

Do you find this acceptable?

We need the community to STAND UP and express your concerns in any way possible. On June 9th, these five individuals will determine whether or not our community will be forced to accept an asphalt plant at Haystack Landing.

Email:

Click here to email the four Supervisors that previously voted to approve this plant.


Call & Fax:
PHONE (707) 565-2241
FAX (707) 565-3778

Planning Commission Decision on Dutra / Shollenberger This Thursday!

We need your attendance & support this Thursday at 1:00pm!!

This Thursday the Sonoma County Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors on the General Plan Policy alterations proposed by Dutra Co. for their Asphalt Batch Plant at Haystack Landing. Please join us and make your opinion and voice heard!


RSVP ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

PRMD Hearing Room
2550 Ventura Ave.
Santa Rosa, CA 95403

Dutra Just Can’t Fit Their Big Foot Into Cinderella’s Glass Slipper

The Noise Report on Dutra’s proposed asphalt plant is in. The PRMD Staff reports that the Dutra Asphalt Plant Barge Docking and Unloading Activities will produce noise levels that exceed the allowed limits set by the General Plan. This excessive noise level cannot be mitigated. It is 14 dBs above the existing ambient noise. The human ear perceives every increase of 10 dBs as twice as loud. So the project will create a public noise nuisance, which the General Plan had the forethought to restrict, but this restriction is being tossed aside.

The Dutra Asphalt Plant project has been seeking approval based on touting the environmental advantages of barging their aggregate to the site (which may or may not be a reality due to navigation issues on the river.) Seems like barging and unloading aggregate is Dutra’s Achilles heel. Despite all possible mitigations, despite the County Staff averaging decibel levels instead of looking at maximum levels, and despite the absence of any scientific analysis of the effect of loud noise and unmeasured frequencies of noise on wildlife, they still can’t make their project fit this site. The noise levels at three locations in Shollenberger Park, including the viewing pier opposite the heron and egret colony’s nesting grove of Eucalyptus trees, exceeds the allowable level.

Just like Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters, Dutra is trying to shove its foot into our glass slipper, Shollenberger Park. But we all know how the fairytale goes: the ugly sisters try cutting off some toes, pushing, pulling and tugging with the help of their servants – but still the slipper won’t fit. 143 mitigations later, the Dutra Asphalt Plant still won’t fit at Haystack Landing. The noise factor just won’t shut up and go away.

But Staff is ingenious, and proposes inventing a new policy LU-19i to exempt Dutra’s Barge off-loading facility from the General Plan’s noise level requirements, and give them their own special levels. Wouldn’t that be lovely if every owner of every asphalt plant proposed in Sonoma County from now on could emit as much noise as requested by the applicant...and the public peace be damned?

According to Dutra supporters we need this asphalt plant in the South County, presumably to give them an advantage at winning the 101 Narrows Project. But the Dutra EIR states there is more than sufficient production capacity from the three existing plants in Sonoma and Marin Counties and I quote:

“… Based on these plant locations, it appears that the region’s needs would still be met for asphalt production and recycling without the proposed project.” Dutra EIR

Once the new policy LU-19i is in place it sets a precedent for the next company who wants to locate an asphalt plant near the next road project. Will we be told we need an asphalt plant near every job site to deliver cheap asphalt? Imagine plants at the city limits of each of Sonoma County’s cities making excessive noise. All duly and ”lawfully” recommended by our Planning Commissioners and approved by our Supervisors. That’s how you make the shoe fit, when it doesn’t. You change the rules. You stretch the shoe.

It’s still the “Wrong Plant and Wrong Place!” Write your elected official to stop this General Plan Amendment.

Joan Cooper

Council's progressive change - Teresa Barrett

By Teresa Barrett
Published: Thursday, May 7, 2009 - Argus-Courier

During this unprecedented period of global economic meltdown, the new Petaluma City Council is making decisions quickly, rationally and responsibly. However, according to local columnist Don Bennett, this City Council is part of a progressive machine that is ruining Petaluma.

I am certainly part of the City Council that unanimously voted to oppose the Dutra asphalt plant and conserve Shollenberger Park and our city’s multi-million dollar investment in that amenity and tourist magnet. As Supervisor Mike Kerns’ appointee to the Sonoma County Planning Commiss-ion, Mr. Bennett ignored Petaluma and its elected officials and voted to recommend constructing the Dutra asphalt plant on the bank of the Petaluma River.

I was also part of last term’s pro-business council that voted to determine the fiscal and economic impacts of all new major development on existing local businesses. So too, I am part of the current council that unanimously voted to direct our city to establish an economic development strategy to guide Petaluma’s future growth.

Although Mr. Bennett implies I have been on the council for two decades, I expect he was being hyperbolic. I have actually served on the City Council for two and a half years. Oddly, he complains about decisions that were made over the past two decades — decisions he in fact helped to make as a member and chair of the Petaluma Planning Commission for 11 years. The current council majority that he complains about has been in place for exactly four months.

The problems Mr. Bennett also wants to blame on the current council were created over the past two decades during which he served. These problems are a direct result of approving development without demanding the necessary infrastructure to make it work.

As Councilmember Glass is fond of saying, “We have been promised traffic relief but only received traffic.” However, in the past four months, the new council has achieved unanimous approval from the Sonoma County Transportation Authority to fund construction of the East Washington freeway interchange improvements, including a new northbound onramp behind Raley’s. We have also kept funding on track to widen and improve the Old Redwood Highway overpass and interchange. Construction will be finished within four years. This current council is providing traffic relief.

Sadly, the Argus-Courier is developing a habit of acerbic, nasty, biased and misleading editorials, cartoons and columns, which then require set-the-record-straight guest commentaries. The paper would better serve the Petaluma public by having an editorial board that no longer supported old, failed policies. It will take cool heads, without vested interests, working together to create a livable community. Perhaps the Argus could become a voice for this new approach.

Indeed, the Petaluma City Council members are progressive insofar as they work to determine what the city can afford in the face of a severely decreased budget that is in large part a result of the current global economic crisis. To that end, the council is working toward designing an economic strategy that requires new development to pay its own way, thus helping the city grow in a way that maximizes value for those who live here, while minimizing negative impacts. This sustainable approach will enhance the quality of life of all residents.

This kind of progressive change defines the current Petaluma City Council. This is progress of which Petalumans can be proud.