Jackson Drive

The commentary by John H. Minan (“Where Was Council’s Alarm System?” Jan. 27), regarding the extension of Jackson Drive through Mission Trails Regional Park was seriously flawed. It was merely a retelling of the Sierra Club’s version of how they believe things ought to be.

Mr. Minan derides the quality of the environmental impact report and then proceeds to admonish the council for ignoring it. I was present at the meeting at which the vote was conducted. While I did not actually read the EIR myself, I did hear several quotations from it, all stating that the road will adversely impact the park’s environment to a point. The council however, correctly decided to ignore the EIR, because having this road is more important.

Mr. Minan says the council, “failed to heed the warning of environmentalists,” as if environmentalists are always 100% correct and ignoring them is morally criminal. The truth is that environmentalists are not always correct in their apocalyptic prognostications.

What Mr. Minan and other environmentalists fail to comprehend is that Mission Trails Regional Park is a park for people, not a nature preserve. Jackson Drive will skirt the extreme western edge, as The Times map indicated. The park is already bisected by Mission Gorge Road. Had Mr. Minan and his comrades been around years ago, today’s motorists would have to find another (much longer) way to get to Santee.

He refers to the extension of Clairemeont Mesa Boulevard to the new Jackson Drive as a fait accompli. I wish it were so. I disagreed with the council when they gave in to Tierrasanta residents and deleted this intersection from the (funding) plan. Mr. Minan makes no reference to this 1990 decision.

Mr. Minan accuses those on the other side of being “imprudent” and acting in a manner that will “prove costly to the city and taxpayers.” That’s exactly what the environmental crowd is doing.

What Mr. Minan and the others who are threatening to sap city funds with a lawsuit and ballot proposition about Jackson Drive don’t understand, is that we, the people, are part of nature and part of the environment. We, the human beings who control everything, will not subordinate ourselves to birds, snails, butterflies and grass. We the motorists of San Carlos, will not drive, out of our way, east to California 52, so we can go west and north on it. The council was correct, and I applaud them. The environmentalists in San Diego are wrong on this issue, and I condemn them for their obstinacy.

JERRY HERMES, San Diego