Rosedale Home Owners Beware of Large Animals...going, going...GONE
By: Joseph Damiano, Rosedale

Originally posted by damiano Fri Dec 1, 2006 11:29:43 PST, as an article awaiting to be approved. I am glad that is awaiting approval because I just found the facts...
http://www.northwestvoice.c...
( This post is currently under review by an editor. Immachuca@northwestvoice.com)

     My wife came home from a horse ranch livid, to say the least, and mad about the Kern County Supervisors Planning Commission planning to make an ordinance change that affects all homeowners, property owners & ranchers in all of Kern county. ( I am trying to find the Ordinance #, any help would be appreciated)

Kern County Supervisors are trying to change Kern County's property ordinance by restricting homeowners, property owners & ranchers to have only 1 animal per 1/3 acre. That is one animal per one-third acre or 15,000 sguare feet of land. Existing homeowners, property owners and ranchers with horses or animals, or land zoned for it will be grandfathered in, while future generations loose their right to have animals.
   The 4H, Future Farmers of America, & Jr. Farms Project are endangerd. Horse owners will be greatly impacted  and limited by this planned change to the Property Ordinance.

In my opinion of reading this flyer and understanding the impacts of the proposed change this means no more cross-fencing, on your property and the horse properties are going, going, gone, while the big developers are backing this with loving kindness & approval that only a mother would give to her child coming from the Kern County Supervisors planned ordinance change. (I will get more facts published soon)

My wife gave me a green piece of paper that explained the details. I read it late last night and was upset about it too. Although we do not have horses on our property, we are zoned for 4H. We don't live on a ranch, but have enough property to cross fence it and have a "Large Animal" area. We have 13500 sq. ft, just short 1500 sq. ft. of the ordinance change.
     Just think of this situation, if a mare has a foal, we would have two animals. The foal would be considered a large animal @ six weeks old. We would have to get rid of one the horses. Even though foals have to suckle for six months. The ordinance change would make us be in violation because we could only have one animal. I could have some of this information wrong but I will correct it if I am wrong.

The horse owners at the stables were talking it up. They had little means to get the word out so my wife stated. I told her to go to the meting, she said that they already had a meeting, and that is why the horse owners are so mad. The meeting attendees got 3 minutes to speak, and the council rudely counted down the minutes, 3, 2, 1 next...

    Its time to get high tech on their butts...

About me & my motives...
    What does a fairly new Bakersfield resident who came from the big city of New York care about something like this for? I care because I fell in love with Rosedale because you could have a few horses, 4H, you could even ride your dirt bike around your lawn until your neighbors complain, you could pet the cow, or the horse in your neighbors yard. This is so cool, so country, so close to the city. It is an oasis away from the concrete jungle, and cookie-cutter developments  that plague the future of Bakersfield.

Right now, our home is almost completely surrounded by new apartments, and new cookie-cutter home developments that have barely enough room for a swimming pool much less anything else. The homes themselves are worth more than the land, and much more than our community's older-built homes. But we have land, a decent amount that we can grow a garden, build a pond, have a built in swimming pool, and even cross-fence a small area to stable horses, have pigs, chickens, or other livestock.
     There is a beautiful attribute about our home: our backyard butts up against a horse ranch called Grandpa's Ranch?, or something like that. I think it is for sale or the other empty ranch next to it may be for sale. I would do almost anything to have that land, or exchange our house for a house with an acre or more. Gladly, anytime, right away, the sooner the better.
Some parts of Rosedale, Bakersfield and surrounding areas are still like an oasis away from the concrete jungle and cookie-cutter developments  that plague the future of Bakersfield, and all of Kern County.

A Better Bakersfield is not going to be if developers get their way and this ordinance gets passed. For all I know, it already did. Darn the news for not elaborating on what is going on. If they said it, it was most likely at the end of the half-hour broadcast and it was said fast.

IF you have some more information, get the word out if you can. If you want no horses then please move somewhere else and do not ruin this oasis in the city...
If you want o help this cause then email these contacts:
Kern County Supervisors Planning Commission (661) 862-8641
NOTE: Every eMail to these members is recorded and logged. Your opinion and or complaint will be accounted for. Voice your concern today. Demand no change to our animal rights.

1. John McQuiston     district1@co.kern.ca.us     868-3650
   
2. Don Maben       &n bsp;     district2@co.kern.ca.us      868-3660
3. Barbara Patrick      district3@co.kern.ca.us      868-3670
4. Ray Watson       & nbsp;    district4@co.kern.ca.us      868-3680
5. Michael Rubio        district5@co.kern.ca.us      868-3690

I AM SO GLAD WE DID NOT GET THAT ELEPHANT WE WANTED TO NAME Jimbo...

Some parts of Rosedale, Bakersfield and surrounding areas are still like an oasis away from the concrete jungle and cookie-cutter developments  that plague the future of Bakersfield, and all of Kern County.

INC magazine ran this article"Top 25 Cities for Doing Business in America" March 2004 & Boomtowns '06: Hottest Midsize Cities  published May 2006. Bakersfield moved from the 5th best midsize city to the tenth best city to do business in.

It is not falling as the sentence above states but rather being reclassified entirely.. William Frey P.H.D. (Demographer) who is often cited with the term "Jerseyfication" has definitively proved that  this shift to the periphery of large metropolitan cities has become increasingly obvious when analyzing population & demographic changes.

Over the mountains...

People are moving to Bakersfield. In 2005, land values made Bakersfield the the nation's No. 1 market for appreciation.   Government numbers released in June 2005 document a housing price surge of 33.67% in the last year alone. Now the bottom has fell out of the market and housing values are starting to stabilize. If you spend any amount of time researching why so many people have moved here, it is because of the real estate prices compared to the greater Los Angeles area. Companies move here because they can make great profits by paying employees so much less in labor costs.

But Bakersfield is ranked at # 616 in per capita income ($17,678) according to WikiPedia. If the per capita income is low and the housing values are high that should send a big alert to your brain. There are not enough well-paying jobs to support the residents. The largest amount of jobs are in the agriculture & manufacturing businesses. It is a great city for new businesses to come in and grow.
It is a great city for families. It is not a great city for jobs, so many residents drive over the mountains.

I want to see more fair-paying jobs being brought to Bakersfield. There should not be such a paradigm shift in the way employers see the labor market & job seekers see the job market. There has to be something that can be done to raise our per capita income. It is only fair to the many new residents, and more so to the residents that have been born here or lived here for the past ten years...

Bakersfield is okay. This is opinion from a former New Yorker, someone who called Greenwich Village home. I am the kind of person who joined the Navy 2 months before I turned 35- the cut off age.
Bakersfield could be better, no one will argue that point. Land & home values are inflated, but have made owners happy with the increases. Schools are better than average. Shopping is poor, there needs to be improvements made to that "other" mall, while Valley Plaza is too crowded because it needs a major overhaul. 
Rosedale is growing so quickly that no land developers have considered making a major eCommerce business park or better yet, a skyscraper with a park to bring in the New Year with our own ball and lots of stores.
1). High Technology- Rosedale and the opposite end of town need eCommerce parks. If the so-called figure of 10 residents from Los Angeles moving here each day is correct, why are we not creating economic incentives to bring the big eCommerce companies to town?
Why is anyone in computer & information technology being paid less than our counterparts in Los Angeles, or any other job? It is because the people have not made those demands. It is up to the people to pressure the City & County government to increase local spending, create incentives for major firms to relocate and market Bakersfield as a possible twin sister to Los Angeles.

2). Building UP- We have a lot of land but we are developing horizontally instead of vertically. Our city council is not approving major development for skyscrapers. The city ordinances prevent large "Jumbotron" style billboards which would increase local business revenues while putting more money in the employee's pocket. Our "downtown" is empty... boring... and lacks any excitement.

3). Transportation- Commuting to Los Angeles is horrible as we should have the high speed rail installed by now. Plane rides to LA should be as cheap as the gas it costs to drive there. This area of improvement is overlooked.

4). Recreation & Entertainment- Bakersfield needs to build on our natural strengths & resources. The exciting things that we have &  Los Angeles cannot provide. Our Kern river should have a massive building & advertising project for white water rafting, camping & fishing. Our lakes need redevelopment to offer high scale amenities, luxury rentals and increase the types of recreation at each lake facility. Water sports need to be exploited. The roads to our lakes need improvement. Motocross & race tracks should be developed to bring National talent here in Bakersfield. Whoever helped the owners of Mesa Marin make the decision to sell that track should be persecuted, while those who sat idly by should be ashamed. We lost a major tourist attraction! Before too much time goes by, someone (maybe a land developer) ought to develop another major auto racing venue as soon as possible. Our theaters and music venues need to be doubled, and built bigger and better to bring International and National talent here in Bakersfield. People from Los Angeles & Fresno should have an incentive to get here in Bakersfield to watch performances that cannot be booked in Los Angeles. Our trail systems should be engineered to have horseback, bicycling, dirt bike (OHV) & hiking trails that rival other counties. The city planners need to set vast amounts of land aside for recreational use only.

5). The Bakersfield sign should have been hoisted 50 feet above highway 99 and up-sized to brighten the road up by its enormousness.
Bakersfield should go big. Then our over inflated land & home values will hold the value.
These are just a few things we could do here in Bakersfield.
Go big in Bakersfield...