When is a math error a real error?

Yesterday I went to a Planning Commission hearing to oppose a project for 26,000 square foot covered horse arena and barn on a 14 acre property that also has 6,000 square feet of residential development on it. This seemed to me to be a terrible precedent for massive development that would be used to push permits for monster mansions.

That was the main point I brought up, although it was rejected by County staff and the commission, both swearing up and down that it's not a precedent for other development. Hopefully they'll remember that when the time comes.

The other point though was about the environmental document from 2007 that they were using. It said the total development including the residence was 26,000 feet, not the 32,000 feet now being considered. I argued they couldn't use the document if the project had been expanded.

After some confusion among staff, they said that the project hadn't been changed, it always had been 32,000 square feet, and it was just the calculation of footage in the document that was wrong. Personally, I'm not all that happy with sloppiness or consider it meaningless, especially when it's a 25% underestimate. Too bad the Planning Commission didn't care.

This happens all the time. We'll just have to keep fighting.

-Brian