Letter: Time for Redwood City’s Cargill and its salt pond to join the 21st century

Time for Cargill, salt pond
to join the 21st century

Re: “Shaping Redwood City Saltworks is a discussion worth having” (Mercurynews.com, Opinion section, May 8):

Redwood City’s Cargill salt ponds are the wrong place for development.

First, this is open space. It’s a tidal plain that’s part of the bay; it’s never been zoned for development.

Second, the site is far from transit centers, right across from heavy industries and will be one of the first places flooded by sea-level rise.

We need housing, but we need transit-oriented infill housing, not sprawl.

We need to restore as many former wetlands as possible, both for the health of the bay and to protect against sea-level rise. There are many other places to build housing – there’s nowhere else where we can restore 1,400 acres of wetlands. There is no reason Cargill can’t sell this site for restoration, just like it did with nearly every other salt pond. It’s time for Cargill to join the 21st century — where we don’t fill in the bay.

Alice Kaufman
Redwood City

 

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