The PD had a feature story on Measure J today and an Opinion urging a "NO" vote.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinio...l-the-good-the
Measure J would create a new tax to not just support our parks, of which we are all justly proud, but would provide funds to develop and promote increased usage by people from outside the area. In other words, only WE who live in the rural county pay this tax, not the urbanites this is intended to attract to our area. So we in essence are taxed to further congest and degrade our own roads and arguably our quality of life while if you live in Santa Rosa or Windsor or anywhere else, you get to come enjoy but don't support it.
A frequent complaint regarding the loosening of regulation of "Granny Units" as a measure to address affordable housing is the additional traffic burden on our roads. What of the traffic congestion in downtown Sebastopol that has noticiably increased since the opening of the tourist-centic Barlow? Maesure J would only exacerbate these problems. Regional Parks states that visitation has doubled in the last 5 years to 5million visitors last year. Do we really want to see this number double in the next five years. And what of beyond that?