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KEY EMINENT DOMAIN SHOWDOWN IN SONOMA, CALIFORNIA |
Deer grazing on pristine Leveroni farm land in Sonoma, California.
The Eminent Domain issue in Sonoma is already a national issue that cannot be ignored . Eminent Domain should only be exercised as a last choice, when all other options have been exhausted .Sonoma Valley Hospital still has many other more feasible and less expensive options: Allen L Roland
Connecticut is one of 47 states re-examining eminent domain laws after the U.S. Supreme Court sparked national outrage by ruling last summer that the city of New London could take homes in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood to make way for private development.
A proposed Connecticut Bill would create a state Office of Property Rights Ombudsman to educate property owners about their rights and help them in Eminent Domain disputes.
Such an office has been helpful in Utah as well as other states but my point here is that the Eminent Domain issue is now a national issue that cannot be ignored.
Which brings us to the current eminent domain showdown in Sonoma, California. Sonoma is a mainly wine growing and farming town nestled in the Sonoma Valley, 45 minutes north of San Francisco, where the local hospital board is raising a Bond Issue ( Measure C ) which would utilize eminent domain to seize 16 prime farm acres of one of the Valley's long time farming families ( The Leveroni's ) to build a new $148 million dollar hospital ~ $ 288,528 million counting principal and interest.
Enter Measure C for the expressed purpose of utilizing eminent domain to annex and purchase the Leveroni property inorder for the hospital to accomplish their ambitious plans and controversal designs for the future.
The leveroni family has been farming in the Sonoma Valley for over 85 years and has no intention of selling those16 acres to the hospital ~ which would eventually lead to the closing of their dairy.
Unfortunately for the Hospital ~ The leveroni's decided to fight back against a hospital scare campaign to intimidate the senior community as well as their own Doctors and employees with threats of the hospital closing and doctors leaving the Valley.
When the hospital hired a Promotional agency, to the tune of nearly $100,000, to promote Measure C ~ it became obvious to myself and many other Sonoma Valley residents that the Doctors were not fully on board and that the fear tactics were not working.
The resultant No on C campaign ( www.no-on-c.net ) is a truly grassroots reaction to the Hospital's use of eminent domain and has now pitted the farmers and grapegrowers as well as a significant portion of the community, including myself, against this measure.
The obvious analogy must be made here of another administration operating under its own agenda, and not necessarily the voters agenda, utilizing fear tactics to manipulate their constituency.
Think Cheney/Bush administration.
As such, not only does Measure C contradict the expressed desire of Sonoma Valley voters who approved the Urban Growth Boundary to protect the agricultural character of Sonoma Valley as well as preserve farmland and prevent urban sprawl ~ but it alienates the Leveronis, as well as the other farmers and winemakers of the Valley ~ the very foundation of this Valley's distinct cultural heritage and economic base.
It's also interesting to note that two out of three hospitals in California who have delt with their seismic problems have chosen to retrofit in place ~ which is still an option for Sonoma Valley Hospital.
Measure C will fail but it will also result in an involved community decision to create a better hospital that truly serves the needs of this pristine Valley and not the needs of an overly ambitious, manipulative and out-of-touch hospital board and management team.
Eminent Domain should only be exercised as a last choice, when all other options have been exhausted, and Sonoma Valley Hospital has many other more feasible and less expensive options.
Sonoma Valley needs a better hospital ~ not a bigger one.
Allen L Roland , Ph.D
A practicing psychotherapist in Sonoma and former member of the Hospital's administrative staff in the mid 1980's.
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