Say you were a business engaged in unpermitted business activity on your property, such as construction and operations that violated your conditional use permit?

Given that vulnerability, would you, in a spasm of NIMBYism, then sue the neighboring property owner and accuse them of flouting the legalities of the planning process?

Not if you had any feel for the meaning of the word “hypocrisy.”

Unfortunately, there is a not-insignificant-enough segment of our population who have developed a moral deafness to their own hypocrisy. Case in point: some karma blowback in neighboring Yolo County.

Some quick background: last year, Clark Pacific, a precast concrete firm, was set to take over the defunct Spreckels sugar bet processing plant in Woodland in order to build a – you guessed it – precast concrete operation on the site. The move would generate 300 jobs devoted to actually making something of value, which is nothing to sneeze at in the Era of Obama.

The city and county governments were supportive, as was the citizenry. Except, however, the owners of the adjacent Historic Nelson Ranch (a horse boarding ranch), Brenda Cedarblade and Ted Wilson, filed suit alleging Clark Pacific violated applicable environmental laws. A judged ruled in Clark pacific’s favor this past January.

It is thus ironic that Cedarblade and Wilson have been flouting their conditional use permit in a manner far more flagrant than anything Clark Pacific was falsely accused of, as has been spotlighted by the pointedly-named blog “Historic Nelson Ranch Scandal.” 

While complaining about the neighboring property’s alleged environmental violations and with a long history of going after competitors and those who don’t subscribe to her philosophy, it turns out Cedarbalde and Wilson have been violating both the letter and spirit of the law all along. 

First, Cedarblade and Wilson constructed a 38,000 square foot riding arena and events center – the site plan shows 65,000 square feet of arena total, a 6,000 square foot office structure and permanent restrooms, and has installed a commercial coach, all in violation of the use permit, and all without first obtaining building permits. 

Cedarblade and Wilson also installed a septic tank, and electrical and plumbing…without County permits.

This is beyond the realm of innocent mistakes. It screams of knowing disregard and makes a mockery of their litigious finger-pointing at Clark Pacific.

The structures Cedarblade and Wilson propose building?

• 5,760 square feet barn
   
• A 28,000 square foot “livestock hay area”
   
• A 2,400 square foot fenced cattle feed and parking area
  
  
• Two “general purpose” barns totaling 6,600 square feet
   
• A 14,400 square foot roof structure

It’s safe to say their current use permit doesn’t allow, and never envisioned, a 38,000 square foot riding arena, office, permanent restrooms or a commercial coach.

That’s a lot of construction, totaling tens of thousands of square feet – and unpermitted, to boot. That’s like somebody building a Trader Joe’s in downtown Woodland, with no use permit or building permits, and no public input or environmental review.  Surely, the Planning Commission would have something to say about that.

If all that weren’t enough, the Historic Nelson Ranch House is dilapidated public nuisance.  Allowing the building to remain in that condition on a property where public events are being held subjects the County to significant potential liability. 

This is more than an issue of skirting county ordinances and bootlegging a horse ranch. It involves hypocrisy of an order of magnitude not much seen, even in this era of conspicuously consuming environmentalists. Did it never cross the minds of Cedarblade and Wilson that when they sued Clark Pacific, they lacked moral standing to lob accusations of violating the EIR process? I’d say they were a pair of pots calling the kettle black, but that would be unfair to the kettle.

But let us be fair. Recently, Yolo County considered a use permit for another ranch that sought to hold public events.  And like the Nelson Ranch, the owner of that ranch had undertaken construction without building permits.  That owner was denied a use permit. It would be unjust for Yolo County to hold Cedarblade and Wilson and their Historic Nelson Ranch to a different, easier standard. To do so would smack of favoritism, cronyism and other unsavory isms.

The fair thing to do would be to order Historic Nelson Ranch owners to cease all unpermitted activities…and then revoke their permit. Or at least suspend their CUP and require them to go through the permitting process from scratch.

That would be a fitting lesson in humility, fairness and respect for the law.