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July 20, 2000 SANTA ROSA - With the Board of Supervisors officially placing the Rural heritage Initiative on the November ballot last week the battle over the anti-sprawl initiative has begun in earnest. The RHI would freeze the county general plan on agricultural land for 30 years. The county Elections Office reported that Citizens for Sonoma County's Future, the proponents, and Neighbors and Associations Defending Agricultural (NADA), the opponents, have both qualified as official political committees, laving raised or spent $1000 each. The groups will have to report contributions and spending on July 31 and October 22, unless they receive a donation over $1,000, in which case they will have to disclose it within 24 hours. First District Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin came out for the initiative last week, saying the current economic boom will force choices best made by a vote of the people. "The Rural Heritage Initiative is about where we grow and how we grow. It will protect and secure the Sonoma County General Plan which was put together by consensus of hundreds of citizens from all walks of life," said Strom-Martin. On the Board of Supervisors only 5th District Supervisor Mike Reilly is backing the RHI. The other four board members have come out strongly against. it. The county staff report on the RHI last week cited several projects that may be affected by it, including the already approved Monte Rio sanitation district, the plan to create a historic district parcel around the old schoolhouse on Mill Creek Road in Healdsburg, and the plan to add land to Shiloh Cemetery. The Rural Heritage Initiative would be retroactive to March 3, 2000. The RHI campaign's lawyers, Robert S. Perlmutter of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP of San Francisco, questioned the fairness of the staff report. The report misrepresents the RHI on the active vs. passive park use issue and farm worker housing, said Perlmutter, in a letter sent to the Board of Supervisors. But other RHI backers found the report helpful. Helen Shane, RHI's campaign manager, said proponents are mostly pleased with the report because it downplays opponents claims. "Now it's not just us saying, "It's going to be all right," said Shane. She said since the Board of Supervisors would be responsible for interpreting the initiative should it pass, their interpretation of the staff report was encouraging. "It shows what we said all along, that farmers who wish to continue farming won't be impacted," said Shane. "Maybe this will help convince them to come around and help us save farmlands." Judy James, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, which opposes the initiative, said NADA would hire a campaign consultant within the week and would then launch their opposition campaign. The group has previously organized protests featuring tractors. "The staff report reinforced our fears that RHI will have many unintended consequences," said James. "We had hoped the report would lay some of our concerns to rest. It didn't." © 2000 Sonoma West
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