This is in response to the rant in the May 23 New Times, “Unity must prevail” about the SLO County Board of Supervisors’ approval of the massive Dana Reserve development in Nipomo.
First, why must unity prevail? Surely it is possible for our five supervisors to respectfully differ with one another over a development as controversial as the Dana Reserve. The anonymous “Generation Build” editorial claims, “this is unacceptable.” No, it’s simply democracy.
And second, why the attack on Jimmy Paulding? He was not alone in opposing the Dana Reserve as proposed. Supervisor Bruce Gibson also voted against the project.
Jimmy Paulding represents Nipomo, and he listens to his constituents. He is willing to take a closer look at what increasing the population of Nipomo by 25 percent will mean for us all. It’s unfortunate that the majority of the supervisors weren’t swayed by his expertise—but again, unity does not necessarily prevail.
If you would like to learn about this development from a perspective beyond the developer’s (and avoid any “factual inaccuracies” as cited in last week’s piece) visit the Nipomo Action Committee website at stopdanareserve.com. This group of Nipomo volunteers has studied the issues raised by the Dana Reserve development for years. They worked with the community to create an alternative development plan that would be less destructive, while increasing affordable housing options. This Alternative Community Plan has never been given an official hearing.
One final note not mentioned in Generation Build’s piece in New Times—the Dana Reserve plan was approved during a week that included both Earth Day and Arbor Day. Contrary to these ideals, the destruction of more than 3,000 native oak trees is integral to the Dana Reserve development. Why would anyone vote for such extreme environmental damage, especially when it is only one of many unmitigated problems with this scheme? I don’t presume to demand that “unity prevail,” but a look at the facts would have been useful for all our county supervisors.
Gail Roberts
Nipomo
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 9, 2024.
Though we believe a project as good as the Dana Reserve deserves a 5-0 vote, it was not the point of our article.
As the original article mentioned, the title “Unity must prevail” was written to emphasize the need for local politicians to remain factual in discourse to prevent unnecessary community division.
This is why we did not mention Supervisor Gibson, who spoke respectfully and factually in his comments, though we disagreed with his points and perspective, prior to voting no.
Supervisor Paulding unfortunately did neither of these things. We therefore felt compelled to write the original article detailing such mistruths which we felt caused unnecessary fear in the Nipomo community.
Lastly, as a minor point, we are not anonymous and have a public board on our website.