From: lauracooskey@frontiernet.net Sent: Wednesday, May 4, 2022 1:09 PM To: Schatz, Elizabeth Subject: Fw: PLN-2021-17465, Dany Avi-David's appeal of permit denial Caution: This email was sent from an EXTERNAL source. Please take care when clicking links or opening attachments. Dear Elizabeth Schatz; i typed your email address wrong a few minutes ago, so here is my second attempt sending in this comment. Thank you, ~Laura ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: lauracooskey@frontiernet.net To: cob@co.humboldt.ca.us ; Rex Bohn Cc: mbushnell@co.humboldt.ca.us ; mike.wilson@co.humboldt.ca.us ; vbass@co.humboldt.ca.us ; smadrone@co.humboldt.ca.us ; eschatz1@co.hiumboldt.ca.us Sent: Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 12:50:22 PM PDT Subject: PLN-2021-17465, Dany Avi-David's appeal of permit denial Dear Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, District 1 Supervisor Rex Bohn, other County Supervisors, and Supervising Planner for this project, Elizabeth Schatz: I write regarding the appeal, by Dany Avi-David, of a lot-line expansion denial scheduled to be heard on May 10, 2022. This is the Honeydew-area mega-grow that was much reduced in scale about two years ago; but now the growers are back, trying another method to expand their operation. The APN in question is 107-272-006. The appeal is continued from the April 5, 2022, meeting of the Board of Supervisors. I trust that you will be able to see through the applicants' ploy, which is basically to wear everyone down with nit-picking details, applications, denials, appeals, etc., until they get what they wanted all along-- and which was vehemently opposed by neighbors. I have not seen a Staff Report or any detailed official description of the lot-line permit application, but a well-informed close neighbor of the scene tells us that the lot-line adjustment will give the growers 17 more acres, creeping up on the 20 they thought they needed in order to qualify for more greenhouses. However, it turns out they actually would need 60 more acres. I am here to point out that 17 is not 20, and certainly is not 60. Because i wrote, in December, 2019, as well as called in to comment on the hearing for the original application of the Honeydew Ranch, and because i completely sympathize with the local residents who would like a reprieve from this nightmare, i feel close to the subject and quite passionate in my opposition to it. Below find a general-purpose essay i just wrote about the problem of mega-grows in the Mattole Valley. Please read it-- especially Rex. I want you to understand the strength of this feeling. (If you read the discussion on the Mattole Google Board already-- which actually concerned Greenfield's "Mezzrow Farms" project-- know that i have amended this essay, and you might want to look at it again here.) ~~~~~~~ The general idea of big industrial grows in the Valley, another likely short cycle in the history of boom- and-bust economies here: As a thoughtful resident of the Mattole Valley (like most of us), i want to support small family farms. And most people here have nothing against weed, per se. But we (if you will forgive my speaking in the plural for what may or may not be a majority of residents... my common sense says that it is) came here for peace and quiet and a sense of "getting away from it all." That was the dream of the Euro-American settlers of the 1850s onward; otherwise, they would have settled in any of the thousands of towns sprouting up all over the West. However, there were those few who saw this unspoiled paradise as a place to grab opportunity and make money, regardless of its effects on the natural and social harmony of the Valley. Although most of those who are smitten by the charms of this place are yet today lovers of nature and despisers of excessive consumerism, we continue to attract those who want to "develop" the place in order to line their pockets as they change a unique (and, to their eyes, ripe for the taking) area into something just like any other place. But take away the beauty here which fills our senses--- the gorgeous and colorful scenery, minus rows and stacks of human construction; the sounds of crickets, frogs, owls, birds, rushing water and trickling streams, the wind in the trees; the smells of the cottonwoods along the river, the coyote brush, the rotting of heavy forest leaf layers, the gentle breath of Ceanothus-- and you take away the essence of the Mattole Valley. While it is possible to sustain small family farmers without wrecking the sights, smells, and sounds of this relatively pristine place, there is no way that industrial plastic grows can co-exist with traditional rural values. There's a familiar provocative tale about the city slicker who buys land in the country, but upon moving there discovers the objectionable odors and noises of animals, manure, butchering, tractors, and all the other sure signs of what had been going on there long before the newcomer showed up and started making his complaints. Today's green-rush newcomers to the rural areas of Humboldt County, wanting to make their own noise and blight, are playing this out in reverse-- we locals are like the old farmers, attached to our peace, quiet, and beauty, and we don't need someone to come along and ruin it, then tell us they've improved things. We did not ask for this visitation of money-grubbing industrialists to come destroy the very qualities that make this Valley special. The very notion of "growth" in economic terms (as opposed to personal, spiritual, artistic, communal-value, etc., growth) is exactly what is driving the rest of the world crazy, and what we are trying to avoid here. Yes, i know... maybe not all of us. But many if not most. Please note, however, to assuage your fears that we will all starve to death while trying to dig out shelter under the roots of old trees, that all those other sorts of growth i just mentioned can also be converted to money without increasing the population, the number of automobiles and houses, or adding one more decibel of numbing industrial noise. That's mainly thanks to the internet, which certainly has its environmental costs, but is perfectly suited to selling one's talents or products to the entire world without having to live crowded among hordes of people and miles of pavement and man-made structures. There are many other ways to make it here, too, and trust us, we will find them. Although that sounds like mighty privileged talk-- imagine, living in natural beauty with a low human population density in today's world!-- i think there's a trade-off that the truly dedicated are willing to make: we'll take less money, fewer toys, less bling, and trade it for more time in nature, with friends and family, enjoying an unhurried, simpler, quieter life. Some call it "living the dream." People have been doing it contentedly in the Mattole Valley ever since it was clear that it offered that choice… and we want to do all we can to assure that it continues to provide such sanctuary. We do not appreciate the eagerness with which the Planning Department and Supervisors embrace these big growers. It seems these plans, while obviously generating a lot of paperwork, red tape, and public alarm/participation, are merely rubber-stamped; there is never a serious consideration of denying them. Maybe the Supervisors and Planners all believe that the Lower Mattole Valley is similar to Southern Humboldt, where there is admittedly a loud outcry about how difficult it is to create a large, legal operation. Well, we are similar areas in many ways, but the Petrolia and even Honeydew areas have always been more about the natural beauty of the King Range and coast, the peaceful times at Honeydew Creek or A. Way Park, the low-key focus on cannabis for mom-and-pop growers trying to live an old-school hippie lifestyle out in the sticks. Yet I have not heard of any big-grow applications in our area being denied (though I admit I have not examined the backlog of permit processes). I see that they are recommended for approval before the hearings even occur. Perhaps the growers woo you with claims of how they will fill the need for jobs, now that the smaller black-market operations can’t cover expenses. But we don’t want it. We don’t need it. We didn’t ask for it. Just make it stop! Thank you for considering this plea for peace and beauty. ~Laura Cooskey Petrolia P.S. I neglected to mention another important factor in decisions about the relative values of development vs. maintaining a small community of humans and high dose of nature here. It's the people with vacation or second homes here, and the retirees. There are many of them around. These landowners pay their County taxes, and when here buy locally. They frequently hire locals as property caretakers, landscape artists, repair and improvement builders, etc. They often send good sums of money to local non-profits. They are some of the most ardent lovers of the Mattole Valley. They visit their properties for a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of urban life, a taste of the world their parents or grandparents described, a place where everyone knows each other and recognizes most of the vehicles they pass on the road. And they look forward to retiring here. Now imagine that's you, and instead of sitting on your porch listening to frogs and owls as you watch the sun set, you are listening to hundreds of fans trying to blow mildew off plants choked beneath plastic cloaks. Every time you leave your perfect little ever-shrinking retreat, you encounter these huge greenhouses covering a plant that doesn't seem to be able to make it here without huge assists of plastic and fuels (who knew? It used to grow great here without all that). I can easily see what a local retiree describes as the possibility of homicidal or suicidal feelings... entire life dreams, plans worked on for years in the cities, disappeared because someone wants to use this place to make money. Who would want to spend their vacation time or their retirement years assaulted daily by these feelings of hopelessness and dismay? Not many. That's the reason given by the ones i've known who moved away... the conversion of the Valley to an economic playground for the already-rich. A real-world "retirement community" (as opposed to an assisted-living complex) is clearly a viable thing... many towns get by quite nicely on the residence or property ownership of people expressly wishing to live without the uglier forms of economic activity. They tend to be in beautiful locations-- beach towns, mountain villages, desert retreats. I am not saying that the Mattole Valley should be exclusively a retirement community. I think of our economic support as more of a patchwork quilt of many different lifestyles and modes of sustenance. But when you consider the many wonderful people who are here, or who WERE planning on being here because they could finally afford to, post-retirement, and whose presence enhances the Valley's natural and social well-being... then the plan to destroy the very values that have made this place attractive seems extremely cold and un-neighborly. We should be welcoming retirees to the Valley, not alienating them. They ARE money, to be crass. That’s not why I value them, but if money is the question, those with solid income not dependent upon the whims of the economy are good to have around.