Rick Hernandez

You may not know it, but our city is in the process of writing a new constitution.

This living document is not being drafted in a stuffy room by men wearing powdered wigs and stockings. Rather, it’s being written at the Emergency Operation Center and City Hall and it’s called the General Plan. This document will define the strategic objectives of our town and its very nature for decades to come. It will impact traffic, housing, and the types of businesses we want to promote. Most importantly, this document will affect whether or not we retain our small town charm and protect the lifeblood of our community, the coastal trail and surrounding open space from the foothills to the sea.

City staff, volunteer committee members and private consultants have been working on this process for nearly a year – collecting feedback through surveys, community forums and public meetings. Collectively, they have articulated guiding principles, which at their core reflect the overwhelming community feedback: maintain and enrich our small town character and protect and enhance the Coastal Trail and surrounding open space.

Now is when the rubber hits the road, and our guiding principles and community values are most likely to be tested by the self interest of a select few. Tomorrow night, the General Plan Advisory Committee will review its first working drafts. At first blush, these maps and proposals are alarming; virtually every piece of open space along the coastal trail, and undeveloped property and farmland in the city limits is up for change.

Sadly, most of us aren’t even aware this process is going on. But it is…and if you care about the character of our community, you better pay attention and get involved. Twenty years ago, David Iverson and Deborah Ruddock led a campaign to stop bulldozing the bluffs. Today, we face a much more subtle but no less dangerous threat to our community. Fortunately, this is an open process and you can participate by just showing up!

It’s fitting that this opinion will be published just after Veteran’s day, a holiday dedicated to the men and women who served in the armed forces to protect our nation’s constitution. How will you serve your community and the generations to come? Will you get engaged and fight for the core values that have served our community, or will you let somebody else take your place?

If you can, please join us for at least the first 30 minutes of tomorrow night’s meeting for a brief overview of the proposals and limited public comment – wearing orange if you support protecting the Coastal Trail and surrounding open space. This is a working public meeting – so pay attention but be polite.

You can also sign our petition.

The General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 13th at 6:30pm at the Emergency Operations Center. The agenda and documents can be found at www.planhmb.org.