To the Editor:
The Fillmore City council wants us to believe that they like SOAR and the voters should have a vote on how Fillmore expands but extending that right to 2050 is too long. They also want us to believe it is in our best interest to limit that right only to 2030.
The truth is, all of the council members have often expressed their dislike for SOAR and want it to go away. Their problem is the vast majority of Fillmore voters want the right to vote on future growth and that's what SOAR gives them.
Here’s what the council is doing about it: They are putting their own SOAR-like initiative on the ballot, making it appealing and selling it like they are helping the people with a better SOAR. And of course, city employees do the work and the people pay the thousands of dollars it will cost.
So how can an additional SOAR initiative completely kill Fillmore’s SOAR protection in 2020? Say that 80 of every 100 people want to vote for SOAR. If just 31 of those 80 people vote for the council’s initiative then neither exceeds the 50% threshold needed to pass and SOAR ends in 2020. Or as councilman Rick Neal longingly expressed it, the day that no developer who buys a ranch will have to wait to pave it over.
Here comes Los Angeles.
Bob Stroh
Fillmore