The Board of Supervisors affirmed the importance of our Ag and Rural Land resources by their 5-0 vote on an obscure Land Use Footnote (see “How to manufacture asphalt on ranch land,” March 4 ). Is it OK to build an asphalt plant on ranch land? The resounding answer is no. We thank the supervisors for their vision; for recognizing what was at stake. According to the County’s 2008 Crop Report, the top 20 most valuable crops were worth more than $600 million. The supervisors understand that asphalt production is an industrial manufacturing process that should be confined to industrial zoning, and ag and rural land should be saved for agriculture.
This article appears in Mar 18-25, 2010.