John Beckman: LAFCO being asked to pick between builders, farmers

To answer your question of “why else we would be so intent on lowering the cost of building homes in Stanislaus County” (“Trying to overturn LAFCO vote is wrong,” Our View, April 12) the answer is the simple basic needs of life: food, shelter and clothing. All humans need to eat, they need clothes and they need a safe place to live.

My question to you is why do you rate the provision of food so much higher than the provision of shelter?

The argument in front of Stanislaus County’s LAFCO is not whether to provide one over the other, but how much of a burden will be placed on home builders in order to benefit farmers. The recent LAFCO vote is a demonstration of power politics and nothing else. Farming interests are more powerful than development interests, so they set the policies, and the price tag, for doing business in Stanislaus County.

“An acre saved for an acre paved” is a great soundbite, but slogans should not be the basis of public policy.

I have worked on agricultural mitigation issues for over 10 years and I look forward to having an intelligent conversation on the issue with anyone patient enough to have the conversation.

This story was originally published April 24, 2015 at 10:29 AM with the headline "John Beckman: LAFCO being asked to pick between builders, farmers."