Unfortunate as this may have sounded to some, the real issue still looms high on the horizon. The Town Council, again almost all business people, seem determined to grow Yucca Valley no matter what the opposition may have to say. As a devout conservative I normally come down on the side of business, but in this case we'll not apologize for saying that the council is wrong and shame on them. Our history with Yucca Valley goes back to the 70's, before the drive to incorporate became fervent. Back then the only time you ever saw any traffic on Twentynine Palms Highway was on the weekend when the water enthusiasts were on their way to or coming from the river. Now you cannot get across the highway except at a light. When the founding Town Council of the newly created city of Yucca Valley set to work on the business of the people one of the first items to be addressed was building restrictions for the minimum size of a lot. Now it is a normal course of events to approve a variance allowing subdivision with a higher density in complete disregard for the benefit of the citizenry and to the benefit of the developers. To the extent that a new development is under way that will increase the town population by an estimated 15% to 20% with one project, all high density.

We might suggest that the Town Council could better spend their hours of trouble making at some worthwhile projects. First on the agenda list would be a binding vote of the people to determine whether the town citizens want a moratorium placed on all building and expansion. Additionally, the council might begin to address some of the serious problems currently facing the town and how to implement immediate action to relieve these problems. Items that are currently being ignored because they would require some real thought and effort to solve. You know the small stuff like the blatant trespass and resultant destruction of property caused by the "rogue" OHVers, which incidentally are not rogues from out of town they are our neighbors who choose openly to disregard the law and any one who wants living proof of that can come and visit me any afternoon when school lets out. How does the council address this problem, they suggest we should build a park for such activity, thereby condoning and mitigating a problem activity none but a few want anyway, some solution.

The complete avoidance of town code and rules regarding construction by many of the local contractors might well be another issue to address. Again, we speak with some degree of knowledge since we went through hell with one these local people recently, to the extent that we finally filed a complaint. The contractor told us that we could file all the complaints we wanted because they were well connected with the city and it would wind up in the trash. Guess what the contractor was right, the person from the town planning commission who was supposed to meet with us to evaluate the complaint NEVER SHOWED UP and instead of issuing appropriate fines to the contractor they were simply allowed to clean up the mess. We seriously considered filing a malfeasance complaint with the San Bernardino Grand Jury, but figured that would never happen either.

Also on the agenda of "to dos" might be addressing the building codes. For more than thirty years our home has been relatively unscathed from the torrential rains to which we are sometimes subjected. Now with recent construction, that was built directly in the middle of the flood plain, the last heavy rain resulted in a washed out driveway, two foot deep trenches running through our property and complete flooding in the backyards of our neighbors.

Finally, we frequently hear comments like Yucca Valley can become the new Moreno Valley or Coachella Valley. I am reasonably certain these comments are made in jest, but just in case they carry even a remote degree of seriousness let it be said they completely ignore the uniqueness of the Morongo Basin. Along with the beautiful star filled black night skies and the unforgiving desert filled with all of God's creatures great and small, Yucca Valley has one other unique unforgettable feature. The town sits in a narrow valley and no matter what we may wish for, there will never be more than two roads into or out of town. We cannot flatten the mountains on either side nor will there be a multilane freeway anytime soon. We quite simply are what we are and trying to change that avoids the facts of a geological terrain that shall remain one of the truly unique places within this country.

These and the many other current problems are only going to be addressed when we the people take appropriate action and replace the Town Council with representatives who are more concerned with the will of the people than with the tax dollars to be derived from a Wal-Mart Super Store or a new Home Depot. And no, before you rant, we are not opposed to either of the above, we simply want to see current problems resolved before we set about to create a whole host of new ones.

With this said, we would be interested in hearing the comments of the local people, just maybe we can win the battle. Get in touch we have some ideas.