Laurel and I typed away like demons last week, getting ready Laurel's response to the Oak Drive lot partitioner's response to her response to the partitioner's application. As if that wasn't enough legalese, now the partitioner gets two weeks to prepare a response to Laurel's response to the partitioner's response to Laurel's response to the partitioner's application. (No wonder why people find the legal system so confusing.) We'll keep you posted, neighbors, as the appeal winds closer to a decision. Of course, there is a good chance that no matter how the hearings officer rules, the losing side will appeal to the next level--the county commissioners.
We are so committed to this cause of keeping Spring Lake Estates as livable as possible, because it is so important to the entire Earth that humans stop acting as if natural resources are inexhaustible and undamageable. The buzz word these days is "sustainability," which isn't a great term, because it connotes a steady state where nothing much interesting or growthful happens. But it does accurately denote the unarguable notion that we humans have to learn how to live on this planet more lightly, or human civilization as we know it can't be sustained. The Earth will go on, but we won't. So it isn't a question so much of saving the Earth. It is a question of saving ourselves.
One more lot in Spring Lake Estates may not seem like a big deal. But multiply "one more..." by six billion people, and you have way too much, of whatever it is. I've been reading a book co-written by a friend, Russ Beaton: "Reuniting Economy and Ecology in Sustainable Development." If you're into this subject, it is a nice short (100 page) well-written introduction to how we humans have lost touch with our natural bearings, and why it makes as much economic as ethical sense to move to sustainable ways of living. Russ (and his co-author, Chris Maser) remind us that natural resources are a central foundation of both economic prosperity and human wellbeing. So when some people take too much of what belongs to everybody in Spring Lake Estates, such as the water, wildlife, open space, and views, it is very much like stealing, and they have to be stopped.
None of us would let somebody come into our house and take what belongs to us. Those things I just mentioned equally belong to us--they just are common property, not private property. So they have to be defended in common, which is what the Stop Densification in Spring Lake Estates Committee is doing. Power to the people! Laurel and I are not nearly as radical as we were in the 1960's (I even voted for Reagan, I think, something that Laurel will always hold against me), but we still believe that people need to use what power they have to defend their common interests. We all have an interest in keeping Spring Lake Estates a great place to live, and we all need to band together to stop people from wrecking our neighborhood to benefit their own narrow self-interest.
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