Regional Op-Ed: Kathryn Gray: Will Placer County BOS Give Developers an Early Christmas Present?

Published on Dec 5, 2008 - 4:09:03 PM

By: Kathryn Gray, Serene Lakes

Dec. 5, 2008 - The Placer County Contractors Association and Builders Exchange (PCCA) aren't, like most of us in the Sierra, dreaming of a white Christmas. Instead, they're telling Santa, er, the Placer County Board of Supervisors that all they want for Christmas is something green, in the form of an interest-free deferral of impact fees related to traffic, sewer, and park mitigation - the fees the county collects to make sure new developments have adequate roads, sewage systems that don't violate federal pollution standards, and parks and open space for new residents to break up the sprawl of development.

PCCA, their eyes perhaps lit up by all the loot under the tree failing banks and insurance companies are receiving from the federal government, have penned a Christmas letter of their own, telling of their need for a bailout, because of "...the statewide slowing of the housing market." Since the market has slowed down, and, presumably, loans have become harder to procure, in PCCA's mind it somehow stands to reason that Placer County taxpayers should step in and become their Kris Kringle guarantors - no questions asked.

Why should Placer County defer those fees, perhaps risking never collecting them if the houses aren't sold? Did it perhaps cross PCCA's mind that loans have dried up for development because what they are proposing to build isn't viable? Have they failed to notice all the developments going bankrupt up and down the State of California? Are they unaware that Placer County is facing an approximately $8 million shortfall, and proposing to close most county offices during Christmas week, requiring affected employees to take a mandatory unpaid leave?

It's beginning to sound a lot like "Grinchmas", yet PCCA expects goodies in their stocking from the county? The Placer County Board of Supervisors should revive the time honored custom of leaving coal in bad children's stockings - PCCA, this lump is for you.

Now, if the Board of Supervisors could only do something about that White Christmas for the rest of us...

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