Developer Should Stay Out of Wetlands

* Another tragic environmental disaster is closing in on California residents as the Oxnard City Council is poised to approve final permits for a housing development to be built on one of the few remaining wetlands left in the state, Ormond Beach.

With amoral bureaucratic lack of respect for public opinion, the council majority is ready to turn over a crucial coastal habitat to a bankrupt developer.

The Baldwin Co. could take a moral action and start the first phase of its much larger planned development on its other property, away from the wetland area. This would make good financial sense, considering the company’s state of bankruptcy and the fact that it has seven other similar developments planned around the state.

What is the hurry to build on the most sensitive part of the project’s area when the rest of it may never be built because the company can’t afford it?

People who understand that humans are a part of an ecosystem and want to resist further destruction of our environment should demand that the council withhold approval of the permit for the Village West phase of the Baldwin Co.’s project.

You can help save this vital remaining wetland from the council’s amoral lack of concern.

MARK WATSON

Port Hueneme