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To the editor:
Read the language of ballot Measures Q and S.
Measure S is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that claims to maintain Watsonville’s existing growth restrictions but in fact opens up the urban limit line and makes it meaningless with 11 words: “… with the exception of any property identified by the City Council …”
That means that a single city council vote could put any of our farmland fields up for annexation. Riverside Drive? The Nugent Ranch?
Measure Q, however, gives Watsonville 18 years to concentrate on infill development on existing vacant and underutilized sites within city limits. The highest and best use of these world-class soils is to grow food, not houses or big box stores. No one wants us to turn into the urban sprawl of San Jose.
S is for Sprawl: Annexing our farm soils is not the answer to housing issues. Vote yes on Measure Q.
Sam Earnshaw
Watsonville