Letter: Asking the supervisors to listen

Publisher’s note: The following letter was sent to the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors in advance of the Oct. 28 9am meeting at Lake Tahoe Airport.

To our Board of Supervisors,

I would never be so bold as to say I know what everybody in Meyers wants for this community, but my shop has been like Grand Central Station ever since the Oct. 16 Planning Commission meeting. Overall consensus — extremely disheartened — and not just because the meeting was impossible for the average, gainfully employed, Meyers person to attend.

Disheartened because this whole mess could have been avoided if the agencies had just been honest and forthcoming. Our community’s fear of a huge Catalyst Project, stress of unraveling rumors and the waste of time searching out the facts was completely unnecessary. The county’s Planning Commission came all the way up here from Placerville, only to get a bunch of well-spun information, some of which just barely resembled the truth.

“Theme Zoning”. Seriously? Myself and others, including candidate for supervisor Sue Novasel, felt obligated to correct staff on several counts, but it appeared as though the Planning Commission had decided on their recommendations for the Meyers plan already.

I was disheartened because one of the planning commissioners, when referring to building height and density, stated, “It really doesn’t matter anyway”.

Well, it matters to me. When the TRPA rezoned us without notice it changed west Meyers particularly, our density for future building went from 10 units per acre to 40 units per acre, among other things, and this new Meyers plan aligns perfectly with what the TRPA has planned for us, not what we, the people who live and work here, want for us. West Meyers is a highly controversial portion of the Meyers’ commercial corridor since it was the proposed location for the much despised Catalyst Project.

We are all disheartened that the Planning Commission recommended continuing with an informal advisory council for Meyers. This is precisely why communication between the county and the community failed. We need to follow the Brown Act or we will forever be hearing things like “Did we vote on that? She said we voted. Well, I guess we voted but I don’t remember.”

I am sure, after meeting with members of this board previously, that you are honest, hard working people and will listen to our businesses and residents with a fair and open mind and will not be influenced by the TRPA or Nevada chamber. This plan has too many issues yet to work through, far too many to write in this note.

Please consider a legitimate survey of the community’s vision for the new Meyers Community Plan — and let me get back to work.

Angela Olson, Meyers