| Viewpoint - Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Letter: Cargill argument has been made before
"By 2020, the population of the peninsula will be over 14 million residents and therefore we need to create new housing in the bay."
Does this sound like a current statement by Cargill and DMB? Well, it was spoken in 1961 by a developer connected to the Rockefeller family, who wanted to cut off the top of San Bruno Mountain and dump it in the Bay in order to build thousands of new homes.
Back in the 1960s, Peninsula residents stopped the developer. San Bruno Mountain is still there. Cargill may be one of the largest privately owned corporations in the United States, but the residents of the Peninsula do not want 30,000 additional residents living below sea level on Bay-fill surrounded by large levies.
Population growth is not new, and filling in the bay to satisfy housing needs was discredited long ago. Over 100 current and former public officials have had the wisdom and the courage to state their opposition to the proposed Cargill development. It would seem that going forward with an environmental impact report on Cargill's proposed housing is premature and that issues of Redwood City zoning and the general plan should be addressed first.
Kaia Eakin, Redwood City
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