I have received and reviewed the memo concerning the Cristallago subdivision proposal which was prepared by the Lake County Planning Department.

To say that this development should scare each and every citizen in Lake County is an understatement. These houses will be packed in like sardines from Park Way all the way along Highway 29 heading north from Lakeport, clustered together as if we were in Manteca, Stockton or Rio Vista, which is why the Lake County General Plan was developed in order to stop this urban sprawl from happening in our county.

This project will put the lake, the environment, the neighbors in the vicinity and the watershed of Scotts Creek in jeopardy. They want us to believe that they can take care of any problems that might result from the subdivision; all for the sake of money.

They want to start the grading and cutting in of home sites right away, leaving the landscape looking like one large construction site for 20 years without one home even purchased. If you look at an aerial view of Rio Vista you would be appalled at all the home site pads with no homes. Is this what our general plan is about?

The developers are from Gridley and Ft. Bragg. The owners are from Ripon, Ft. Bragg and Pleasanton, Calif. They will all become millionaires and want this subdivision to be built no matter how much lying to the public they have to do in order to make it happen. They picked our county because they thought we were an easy mark. I could go on and on about how they have tried to mislead the Planning Commission and now the Board of Supervisors. Because of constraints on how much I can write, I’ll keep it to one example.

I have previously written to the paper outlining my concerns about the large amount of asbestos in the soil. In the Planning Commission meeting of Sept. 10, 2009, I told them the land was rampant with asbestos. To the credit of some of the planning commissioners, they too were concerned. At that time, the developers told us not to worry; only 5 percent to 10 percent of the soil had asbestos. This was a clear cut lie to all of us.

In the memo to the Board of Supervisors from the Planning Department it states: “At least 300 of the home sites, two neighborhood parks, conference facility, community center, community commercial village and golf course holes 10 through 17 and a portion of 18” have asbestos in the soil at the “high end range.” This is clearly the most toxic site in all of Lake County.

This sure seems like a lot more than 5 percent to 10 percent to me. I ask you, are they telling the truth?

Their plan to handle this toxic site is to cover the soil in most areas with 3 inches of uncontaminated soil and the home sites with 12 inches of soil. This is woefully inadequate. Placing more top soil on the home sites will create serious erosion problems as most of theses sites are on a grade of over 30 percent, thus the homes will be sliding down the hillsides.

Imagine if your child were to go out in the backyard to play and digs a hole in the soil, she is now contaminated with asbestos fibers. If a dog digs a hole anywhere in the above-mentioned areas and gets in your car, both you and your car are now contaminated. Children have a much higher health risk and exposure at an early age may well lead to diseases and cancer earlier in life. These asbestos fibers are so small that they can only be seen with a microscope. They cause cancer and other lung diseases. The incubation time for these diseases is about 10 to 40 years That we know is a fact and there are still many lawsuits concerning families, miners and construction workers getting cancer on the books throughout the country. The asbestos exposure epidemic is in full swing in the US. Approximately 30 people a day are dying of these awful diseases and our Planning Department thinks you can build right on top of it.

How the Board of Supervisors could possibly consider approving this subdivision is beyond me. They are supposed to look out for the best interests of their neighbors in the county. By approving this subdivision, they will being putting every adult and child who lives there directly in harm's way.

This whole project needs to be sent back to the drawing board and be redone, omitting the areas of asbestos from any home sites or high foot traffic areas.

Please join me at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16, at the Board of Supervisors meeting to watch these developers use “smoke and mirrors” to try and convince us that our families lives and our way of life will be better for us all, just trust them.

These men have already lied and fooled the Planning Commission. The question now is will the Board of Supervisors have the courage and integrity to send this mess back to the drawing board or will they fail to protect the current and new citizens of Lake County and approve this high risk subdivision?

I say that these men cannot be trusted. This needs to go to a vote of the people in the next election in November. I’m very concerned that the Board of Supervisors will “roll over” all for the sake of money.

Norm Ihle lives in north Lakeport.