vote for George Barrante for Oceanside, California City Council

Oceanside’s Future.
Oceanside’s future does not lie in “slow growth,” “no growth,” “fast growth,” or even “smart growth.” Rather, it lies in “intelligent growth,” the leadership for which obviously comes from its elected officials. That growth should recognize and respect Oceanside’s unique characteristics, history, culture, diversity and geographic proximities and should not be in competition with other cities.

Balance Commercial and Residential Development.
The close proximity between where people live and where people work is very important to achieving a better quality of life and higher standard of living at all social and economic levels. For Oceanside to be the bedroom community for South County or Orange County makes Oceanside the second or third choice of a community in which to settle. Being close to work is the obvious first choice in determining where to live. A healthy balance of living and working facilities is simply good planning and helps Oceanside maintain its very desirable and unique cultural and ethnic identities and economic strength. Accordingly, industrial and commercially zoned properties should not be re-zoned for residential use unless there are absolutely irrefutably compelling reasons to do so.

Preserve Commercially and Industrially Zoned Properties for Business Development.
Oceanside has made a great start in developing its independent economic base with the Ocean Ranch Industrial Park and other commercial and industrial projects. In the past because of market forces and economic necessity, incompatible or less desirable uses have been approved in commercial and industrially-zoned properties. I believe that Oceanside has passed the point where that is necessary or advisable and in the future those parcels should be kept available for the purpose for which they are zoned and not granted variances or CUPs for alternative non-conforming uses.

Infill Projects.
Oceanside is substantially built out. Most of the new development will be redevelopment projects within and outside of the redevelopment area, seeking higher density infill projects. In this connection, it is essential that such projects not have a negative impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. Such projects should bear the burden of their own impacts, such as parking, ingress and egress, visual impact, retaining neighborhood and community integrity, compatibility, achieving a high degree of architectural and design elegance and providing adequate open space. We often hear that proposed projects meet the ordinance requirements for parking, density, lot size, building size and open space, etc. It is important to recognize and understand that these ordinance requirements are only minimums (the threshold that gets the developer in the door). But Oceanside is not a “minimum standard” community and the project in its entirety has to meet the overall standard of “good planning,” incorporating the broader elements mentioned above. The ultimate entitlement to develop a project is not ordinance-specific, but must inherently consist of many discretionary and inter-related aspects to achieve acceptability.

Barrante Knows He Can Make a Difference
George Barrante is ready to use his knowledge of Oceanside, Service and experience to move to the Oceanside City Council.

Paid for by Friends of George Barrante for City Council -- FPPC # 1284792, Gregory Barrante, Treasurer