Letter: Vote no on Measure J | Letters to the Editor | napavalleyregister.com

2022-09-03 02:30:43 By : Ms. Fiona Meng

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American Canyon voters can stop environmental destruction along the fragile wetlands and estuary by voting no on Measure J this November. The owners of the 157-acre property, which is currently planted in grapes and grasslands, want the city's urban limit line extended to eventually rezone this land into an industrial park.

This property abuts the Bay Trail, is adjacent to a marsh, within spitting distance of a 2009 wetlands restoration and is enjoyed daily by dozens of people who walk/bike daily. Few realize that the destiny of this land is in peril.

If you're out there, what you see is wild, natural beauty, and a view all the way to Mt. Tamalpais. The thought that anyone would want to cover this with concrete, parking lots and multi-storied warehouses and office buildings is shocking beyond belief.

The climate crisis is here. Life is different and what we do now matters. Local change is the only change we can impact as individuals.

The property is now Green Island vineyard. It's protected from the rest of the industrial park area because it is at the end of the road. A road paced with trucks. Within 15 minutes, I counted 45 trucks. They lumber daily, spewing exhaust and destroying the roads. The noise of their engines reverberates between warehouses throughout the industrial park area. Even today, bulldozers are ripping up grassland and wildlife habitats to build millions of square feet of warehouse space on a property across the road. Voters didn't have anything to say in that matter.

But, this time they do! This property is zoned ag/open space/watershed. In 1990, Napa County voters created a law stating that no ag land could be rezoned without a vote of all Napa County residents. The owners of this property have a way out of this mandate, and that's to have the land annexed into the city of American Canyon so it doesn't fall under the authority of Napa County voters. Just the people of American Canyon.

That's why, if you want to have an impact on the traffic, water shortage, pollution and ever-shrinking wildlife of American Canyon, it's vital to vote no on Measure J.

No on Measure J Committee

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