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Letter: Developer overseeing Saltworks EIR

I have sent the following letter to the Redwood City Council:

The Saltworks environmental impact report is being written by a non-representative group of consultants who are not listening to the views of Redwood City citizens about the DMB Saltworks project that will further fill in our bay.

I see that 15 of 17 sections of the Saltworks EIR are to be written by people hand-picked by DMB, and that DMB will control the content of those reports, so that the city doesn't see anything that DMB doesn't want it to see. That process will make the Saltworks project easier to approve and save DMB much money in mitigation costs.

This is not the transparent and fair process the city promised its citizens, of which I am one, and a life-long one at that. This is not the way other cities do this or have done this. Consultants are overseen by the city and work for the city as neutral parties, and the developer pays the cost.

Redwood City Neighbors United have asked the city to follow the latter path, which uses transparent and fair procedures. Now is the time for the city to make these changes and stop fronting for DMB. We are not stupid, and we will not allow our city and our bay to be ruined for DMB's tremendous profit.

We have been asking the council to represent the interests of the majority of its citizens, who have indicated clearly that they do not want this development to fill in their bay, build all that housing away from transportation and downtown, squander water we don't have, and crowd our freeways even more. It has been clear from the start of this project that the city was working with and for DMB and not us, the citizens. I would, at this point, love to be proved wrong, and I ask that you change the procedures for the EIR so that they are transparent and fair.

Judy Kirk