Tom Lasek says CDD's comments discourage public input on local area plan

Tom Lasek told supervisors he appreciated the board's commitment not to approve a local area plan unless the community supports it, but he said the Community Development Department's repeated statements that changes would cost money or force an EIR restart discourages public involvement.

"For example, a phrase might be, 'well, you can do that...but the board has already approved that. So don't bother,'" Lasek said, adding that officials' repeated framing that a new draft would require starting the EIR over sends a "don't bother" message to the public. He urged clearer alignment between staff messaging and the board's public commitments.

Lasek argued that if the plan needs substantive revision it should result in a genuinely new draft rather than token edits, and asked the board to ensure community input is actually considered in subsequent drafts.