Regarding the March 25 article, “Santa Barbara County Shifts Gears, Adds 19 New Sites to Housing Element Proposal,” there has been a lot of discussion about the draft county Housing Element.
Many complaints about it stem from the proposal to include agricultural-zoned properties as potential housing sites.
But nowhere have I seen any discussion, or even brief mention, of how these proposed changes would relate to the Williamson Act that controls how agricultural land is taxed.
Under that law, land use contracts specify 10 years (or more) use as agricultural land and there are specific requirements for agricultural land to be rezoned.
As articulated by the State of California, “Contracts may be exited at the option of the landowner or local government by initiating the process of term nonrenewal. Under this process, the remaining contract term (nine years in the case of an original term of 10 years) is allowed to lapse, with the contract null and void at the end of the term.
“During the nonrenewal process, the annual tax assessment continually increases each year until it is equivalent to current tax rates at the end of the nonrenewal period.
“Under a set of specifically defined circumstances, a contract may be canceled without completing the process of term nonrenewal. Contract cancellation, however, involves a comprehensive review and approval process, and the payment of a fee by the landowner equal to 12.5% of the full market value of the property in question.”
Perhaps Noozhawk could look into this aspect of the proposed changes and describe the impacts they would have.
Addison Thompson
Santa Barbara
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Addison Thompson’s March 31 letter to the editor about Santa Barbara County’s ambulance service is so correct. It’s more spending for the fire departments.
The ambulance service that the county has had for so many years is excellent. Let the professional medical technicians continue.
N.G. Angel
Buellton
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Regarding the April 3 article, “Emergency Personnel Respond to San Marcos High School on False Active Shooter Report,” our children and teachers continue to be caught in the crossfire — literally.
On that day, the Goleta grade school class that I support as a volunteer math tutor was coming in from a sunny recess when a lockdown order came over the school loudspeaker.
Twenty students, their teacher and I (a local professional engineer and business owner) immediately locked the classroom doors, moved out of sight and huddled behind the waist-high bookcase beneath the wall of windows in the 1960s-era classroom.
And there we all attempted to hide, with the lights out, in complete silence — with the exception of a few children who quietly sobbed — until the all-clear was given, an excruciatingly long 30 minutes later.
Fortunately, this particular story did not end in another tragedy; the cause of this lockdown was the incident at nearby San Marcos High School.
But for those 30 long minutes — for the children, for their teacher and for me — the threat was very real. The fear and the tears were real. The frightening memory those 20 children will carry with them into their futures is real.
For me, the lockdown was not only frightening, but also re-traumatizing. My beloved 19-year-old son, Jasper, who was a UC Santa Barbara freshman, was murdered a little over two years ago by a 15-year-old with a handgun he never should have had access to on a sunny weekday afternoon on a residential street, just a few blocks away from where this week’s grade school lockdown took place.
Tutoring young kids and supporting our hard-working teachers is one thing I am specifically doing to honor Jasper’s memory.
I write now for that same reason, and because I don’t want any other parents to have to experience the profound grief of losing their child to gun violence.
This epidemic of gun violence against and among our children must stop. Our politicians at the state and national levels must be pressed to pass more meaningful background check and gun safety legislation. Now.
The majority of U.S. citizens wants it, our society and children need it.
Anyone who thinks a person’s unobstructed access to guns and assault weapons is more important than our children’s safety, has clearly never experienced an active shooter lockdown with elementary school students, or lost their beloved son to senseless gun violence.
With every new school shooting, street shooting, home shooting, more parents, children, schools and communities are left in a brokenhearted devastation that no words could ever adequately describe or repair.
We asked in 1999 after Columbine, in 2012 after Sandy Hook, last month after Covenant School, and we asked after all the mass shootings in between: If not now, when?
I ask again today — with a broken heart and tears in my eyes — if not now, when?
Sharon Donohoe, Jasper van der Meulen’s mom
Goleta
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Regarding the April 2 article, “Towbes Plaza Only Latest Major Initiative of Santa Barbara Library Foundation,” through a personal experience, I recently discovered the scope of the extraordinary services offered by the Santa Barbara Public Library.
A friend of mine was frustrated in seeking employment. Someone suggested that she might try the library for assistance.
To our great surprise, a very friendly and responsive librarian made us aware of help in preparing a résumé and tips on presenting yourself to advantage in a job interview. The staff couldn’t have been more welcoming and helpful.
I am happy to report that the result was success in attaining the position that my very happy and grateful friend was hoping for.
A further benefit of my experience was a discovery of the many other beneficial opportunities that are available at our library — everything from helping to prepare your taxes, to English as a Second Language classes, to preschool story time for kids and moms.
The extent of the community benefit of our library was a wonderful surprise. We are very lucky to have this free resource as just another exceptional aspect of what makes Santa Barbara such a special place to live.
Art Merovick
Santa Barbara
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While I respect the right of Noozhawk readers to admire D.C. Collier’s writings, they are NOT mere commentaries as one reader described them in the March 31 letters to the editor.
They preach, they invoke, they demand, and insist that anyone who does not follow the ways of Christ is a sad case.
I am offended by the “WE-Them” (capital letters intended) implication every time Collier orates. He seems not to understand one of the most fundamental lessons of the true Christ, which was HIS example of charity to all, without demeaning those of us who are different.
I feel Collier’s lack of goodwill and certainly of brotherly love nearly every time I read his columns. As an observant Jew, I hope for more generosity from this Christian in the future.
Josie Levy Martin
Montecito
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I enjoyed D.C. Collier’s April 6 commentary, “Christ Was No Victim, and Is Still in Charge.”
This is a very powerful message, and now I have additional reason to be in the Hawks Club for posting it.
I am an Elder (Emeritus) in Christ Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara. I have served as a volunteer chaplain in the Santa Barbara County Jail for the last 15 years. Collier’s message is a central part of my appeal to the inmates in the “tanks” of the jail.
Early on, I asked the men how I can pray for them. A common reply was, “I keep doing this ‘stuff,’ and coming back into the tank. How can I be a Christian?”
About 80% of the inmates are in jail for substance abuse infractions. The average number of times that a man comes back into the jail is 23!
At one time or another in the course of their recidivism, they wonder if God will “kick” them out of salvation because they keep coming back into the tank. That concern haunts them every hour of the day.
Therefore, I built a Bible study on that subject that contains Collier’s message, and an extension to it.
Collier might not agree with the theology in the extension, but I can tell you that it has borne much fruit in the jail. The title of the Bible study is “Chosen in Christ.” Here are the elements of it:
- God wrote your names in the Book of Life. (Revelation 20:11-15)
- God did it before the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 13:8)
- How did God manifest it in your heart? He gave you a “new heart” and caused you to feel it and walk in his statutes. (Ezekiel 36:24-26 KJV)
- God gave salvation to you, and you can’t lose it. (John 10:22-30)
- Only Christ’s “sheep” can believe that he is the Son of God.
- The Pharisees heard it before (in John 5), but they did not believe it; indeed they could not believe it because they are not of his sheep.
- Christ gives salvation to his sheep.
- They shall never perish, and nobody can “pluck” them out of his hand, and nobody can pluck them out of God’s hand, for he says “I and my Father are one.”)
This message is a tremendous comfort to the men in jail. One time after presenting this Bible study to a group of 20 men, several big bruisers with tattoos all over their arms walked to the front of the class and threw them around me and said, “Thanks, man, for coming down here and teaching us this stuff.”
That is a very common response to this message that I receive in one form or another.
In addition, this message has led to a number of conversions in the tanks. It gives the men hope, which leads them to salvation as I talk to those already saved.
Hope is like the “water” of refreshment in the “dry and thirsty land” of the jail. Hope is the “nutrient” present in the least amount in the jail (a’ la Liebig’s Law of the Minimum) that controls any growth in grace in the tank.
Alexander the Great is reputed to have said, “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”
Our leader is Christ, the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” And one day he is coming back to lead his sheep in victory over Satan.
Bob Nisbet Ph.D.
Santa Barbara
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