Redland Community Council Rejected Soccer Field. By Youbetcha' and Geniusofdespair

The Community Council 14 vote was a unanimous 4 against a formal soccer field in the middle of agriculture land. Here is the whole story by Youbetcha' and it is a good one:

The attorney and his client did not seem at all concerned about the Urban Development Boundary or that they were plotting this 240 person stadium and 180 car parking area smack-dab in the middle of farmland. Yes, they knew that farmland was shrinking, but it was okay because their area was surrounded by larger parcels of farmland that could still be farmed. Even better is the fact they stated that they didn’t really want 180 parking spaces; the “county MADE them do it.” (Hit read more)

Since when do fruits, vegetables and farm animals play soccer? Actually, come to think of it, I suspect that the average neighborhood farmer would like to have a good night’s sleep after listening to their neighbors play soccer…illegally, without the benefit of a public hearing.

I found it particularly annoying that the applicant’s attorney stood at the podium and played the “migrant workers “card. Attorney Vera made it seem that out of very goodness of Bernardo’s heart, he was going to construct a private soccer club for the local residents and farm workers to use. He brought the prerequisite beautiful children to fill the seats and stand on cue. It was just like a wedding, his family on one side, her family on the other.

The plan was to light up the field, too. Imagine that. They would be playing soccer and creating traffic in a community that was tractor slow, as well as confusing the heck out of light-sensitive plants and wildlife.

It wasn’t a concern that they would be dumping automobile fluids and septic tank poop into the ground water which flows directly at their neighboring farmer’s drinking water wells. It didn’t seem to matter that the poop would work its way into the canal system or into the irrigation wells to water produce.

Actually, it was pointed out that DERM approved it. (What was DERM thinking?) This property has a canal on one side and an entire community around it that drinks and bathes in well-water that can be pumped from 10 feet down! The county environmental board actually told the property owner that his guests and employees would have to drink bottled water. Screw the neighbors! Screw the environment!

The miserable thing is that the county allowed the illegal soccer games to go on for at least a year. This resulted in anger and frustration that spilled over at the podium as the neighbors spoke. They complained about strangers in their neighborhoods; wild, if not drunken driving after events, noise and pollution. Some of it was undoubtedly true. Other of it, such smoke from fires, may not be solely the doing of the soccer players as farmers burn debris and plastic, too. But, the tone of the frustration took on an ethnic tint. That was not a happy thing for a diverse community such as our county.

I blame the county for not enforcing the laws. If county code enforcement was doing their job, not just the 7-4 Monday through Friday thing, the soccer games would have been shut down long before the growers/farmers sustained damages to their property and farms. The community would have not been able to complain about noise and strangers on the canal bank, and those beautiful children would not have been disappointed tonight.

Tonight could have been a teachable moment for those children. A moment that could have said, “there are laws and your dreams have to abide by them”. Instead these kids were let down because no one explained that they had an unreasonable expectation that they could have what they wanted in spite of laws to the contrary. Tonight’s teachable moment became “we didn’t win because we are not like them, we are foreigners” NOT “we didn’t win because our soccer club was not a legal use for that property”. There was resentment, bewilderment and hurt as a result. You could see it in the young faces.

Community Council 14 board members did the right thing. They voted to protect the environment, the farmland and farm businesses. It isn’t easy to see children and vote against them. But, the Board honored their commitment to uphold the comp plan and Urban Development Boundary; it was an easy call after the evidence, but tough job at the end.

(Genius said: Youbetcha' I think the County Commission will fold and approve the soccer field when they hear it.)