By Randall R. Smith

There was a time when large and small public issues were debated in widely circulated media. Thomas Paine and Paul C. Bodenhamer come to mind. Now the fashion is different and often citizens never really know what is happening and the motives behind given action. This letter will doom my own future as a Redding planning commissioner, yet Reddingites need to understand current jeopardy to the lofty ideals of the general plan and the Parks, Trails, and Open Space Master Plan.

It has been said many times in our 32 years here that Redding is on the edge of significant change. Nothing in the past prepares us for what is coming, and we must behave differently from how we have both in the long ago and recently. Thus far, the majority of Redding's people do not understand what they have been given to solve. Powerful outside interests are being aided and abetted in shaping a future that many have sought to escape in places like San Jose and San Fernando.

We are the new and next hot California property. Our abundant resources of available land, inexpensive power, surplus water and incredible viewscapes loaded with natural treasure make us the envy of most other communities. Growth should happen in this area, as we have little Class I soil to pave. New residents are welcome. But they must bring the support systems they leave in the form of building permits so that we can build what is needed. They must help contribute to success rather than degrade our existing systems: knot our traffic, crowd our parks, overtax our municipal enterprises. This is not "frills over potholes" or vice versa.

We can have a vibrant, well-articulated future including many newcomers. We have only to ask. We must stop the Lord Keswick mentality from the era when London bondholders raped our hillside, leaving only a Superfund site in their wake. Ours is not a poor area, yet we still behave as if the Terry Mill Superdome-size sawdust pile is a blessing. The new gypsies have to be told we are different now. Our homes and our quality of life are not free for the taking.

Soon "smart growth" advocates like "Healthy Shasta" and a nascent PAC will be available to offer alternatives to the Shasta Alliance. Before the Joint Industry Council, Sara Frost and others formed Direction Plus in the 1970s to save trees and promote development, which planned for growth by providing services in advance of need rather than later. The narrowly adopted Oasis Road Specific Plan is a giant step backward into Redding's pre-Mike Warren time. Sales and property taxes half a century distant are seen as the ways to pay for things needed now. The 10 percent parkland mandate of the Parks, Trails and Open Space Master Plan was surrendered. There is no provision for a school in a new satellite community of several thousand. Infrastructure including collateral traffic improvement is left to find solution by some magic. Complex hydrology is dismissed as if the Clover Creek lawsuit and its expensive, wonderful solution never happened. This large and horrible blueprint is manifest in countless small ways taking place today.

Drive Constitution Avenue behind the Record Searchlight headquarters and witness the denuded hillside. This is not what was approved, nor does it meet the newly minted Tree Ordinance. But it is the way things happen now because there is a different, terribly selfish and shortsighted mind-set afoot in our city. A planning cancer has taken hold, and the effects are killing us while we live.

If new and seasoned veterans of the Redding development saga really wish what is coming, they need to do nothing. The nightmare is coming and it will proceed as envisioned by those at the helm. Alternatives do exist. Places like Petaluma, Dixon, Elk Grove and many others have sustained incredible growth and maintained an enviable quality of life. The choice is ours, but time is precious. We deserve a better tomorrow, something for the long term from which we can derive enjoyment and pride. Redding is too wonderful to be plundered by outsiders and the few who benefit at the expense of the many.

Randall R. Smith is a member of the Redding Planning Commission.