ALERT! Please attend the Ojai City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 7:00 p.m. and voice your support for the protection of archaeological resources within the City of Ojai. Up until now, many Chumash and earlier sites, some nearly 8,000 years old, have been ignored and destroyed as modern Ojai has been developed. In 1987, the City of Ojai and its citizens committed in the city’s General Plan to identify, preserve and study archaeological sites (referred to as cultural resources). It is time for the City to make good on this commitment. The Ojai City Council is addressing how to protect the archaeological sites that lie beneath our feet as we go about our lives in the Ojai Valley. We need YOU to help ensure that the council makes the right decisions. While the Ojai General Plan includes the protection of cultural resources, the zoning ordinance, which controls earth-disturbing activities, is silent on the matter. This gap in Ojais planning laws must be fixed, and proper procedures must be developed to protect these precious non-renewable resources. This includes tribal consultation as required under a new state law. The council meeting on Jan. 27 is the first step in creating a new zoning ordinance and procedures to protect these special places. It is very important that this process begin on a sound footing and demonstrate broad public support from local citizens. A mosaic of Chumash and earlier cultures is at stake. The agenda item for protecting Ojais cultural (archaeological) resources at the council meeting starting at 7:00 p.m. on January 27, 2015, is number 7. Please fill in a green speakers card from the table outside the door of the council chambers and write in agenda item #7, then hand it to the City Clerk at the council table. Your comments should ask the council: (1) to identify and protect Ojais archaeological sites as required by the Ojai General Plan and state law; (2) to require an ordinance; and (3) to require tribal consultation and qualified expert consultation (by state agencies and professional archaeologists) to establish proper protection procedures. If you cannot attend the January 27 council meeting, your comments (please use your own words) should be emailed to council members, before noon on Tues. Jan. 27. Contact information follows: Email Addresses for Severo Lara (Mayor), Council Members & City Clerk: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Please also send a copy of your emailed comments to me at sespecoyne@gmail so we can keep track of local citizens who are concerned about Ojais cultural resources and contact you directly next time public input is needed. Thank you kindly for your interest and assistance. For the ancestors, Alasdair Coyne Ojai
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 01:12:22 +0000