Emerson Drake: Brandvold will rubber-stamp doubling Modesto’s footprint

Local developers, real estate interests and the lobbyists at the Chamber of Commerce had to look long and hard to find someone as willing to be a rubber stamp as Ted Brandvold. He claims he’ll listen to the public, but when he was on the Modesto Planning Commission, and after listing to people speaking against sprawl numbering more than 20-to-1, he actively promoted expansionist plans. He, and they, wanted to enlarge Modesto’s footprint from where it is now, 37 square miles, to 76 square miles – which can only be described as the very definition of sprawl.

Many of the people who are financially supporting Brandvold are the same ones who either took money or, through other inducements, were promoting selling our water to San Francisco – which would have created a water shortfall even in times of good rainfall, let alone during a drought.

Why would they do something so dastardly? Because some of their friends discovered a way to profit from it. Then, like now, these people are more concerned about special interests making money – not what’s in Modesto’s best interest.

Please vote for Garrad Marsh to save Modesto’s future.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Emerson Drake: Brandvold will rubber-stamp doubling Modesto’s footprint."