Advocacy News

The North San Diego County Association of REALTORS® (NSDCAR) Governmental Affairs Department is dedicated to advocating for you and your clients. NSDCAR works hard to maintain a healthy business environment and to defeat laws, which inhibit the growth of the real estate industry. This is accomplished by supporting local candidates who support you and the real estate industry and its positions on issues.

NSDCAR’s advocacy efforts are confined to issues affecting private property rights and issues that affect your ability to do business. Leadership does not take positions on any issues that do not have an impact on REALTORS® or the housing market.

NSDCAR REALTORS® MAKE ANNUAL SUMMIT LEGISLATIVE VISIT

A delegation of 16 NSDCAR REALTORS® who serve as California Association of REALTORS® Board Members attended the annual state legislative visit in Sacramento last week to meet with our Assembly and Senate members to advocate for issues of concern to our industry. Members met with legislators to inform them about concerns over preservation of mortgage interest deductions and to urge they oppose issues such as taxes on services and other pieces of legislation that could make real estate more costly and difficult.

Pictured from left to right are NSDCAR’s C.A.R. Directors: Kimberly Gross, Betty Curtis, Chuck Smiar and Bob Pahlke.

C.A.R. to Host Future Candidate Campaign School

Training for REALTORS® Interested in Seeking Public Office

C.A.R. will be launching its third Candidate Training School for REALTORS® on October 17-18, 2011 in Sacramento, California. This forum will be a very exciting opportunity to groom and extensively train California’s REALTORS® to run for local elective office in 2011 and beyond. Those candidates chosen to attend the two-day training session will be afforded an opportunity to make a real difference in the real estate industry by helping to shape public policy once elected to public office.

For more information and to download the nomination form; please click on
“Campaign School” All candidate school nomination applications must be submitted by Wednesday, June 15, 2011.

A screening committee will be selected to review the applications and to make the final selection of candidates who will be asked to attend the third candidate training session in Sacramento, California. If you have questions, contact NSDCAR Vice President of Government Affairs Ernie Cowan at (760) 734-3971 or
ernie@nsdcar.com.

NSDCAR REALTORS® TOUR PROPOSED QUARRY SITE

Responding to questions from Fallbrook REALTORS®, NSDCAR arranged a recent tour of the 450-acre Liberty Quarry proposed to be built about six miles northeast of Fallbrook at the extreme southern edge of Riverside County.

The quarry project has been in the planning stage for nearly six years and has generated concerns over traffic, dust, noise and lighting impacts on the communities of Fallbrook, Temecula and Rainbow. To help REALTORS® obtain accurate information about the proposed quarry, a tour was arranged with Granite Construction Company that is attempting to secure approval for the project. In addition to visiting the proposed Liberty site, REALTORS® were able to also visit the operating quarry at Rosemary’s Mountain, located just east of Interstate 15 on Highway 76.

Long-time Fallbrook REALTOR® Ralph Foster was part of the tour and found it enlightening and valuable.

“I do represent a lot of clients, so this helped me get some real facts that I can use to educate people. This helped me a lot,” Foster said. “After you see where this is and what it is, I’d have to say I don’t have a
problem.”

The eight REALTORS® who joined the tour were able to ask questions about access to the proposed quarry and view on-the-ground examples of the quarry footprint, and its location in relation to surrounding communities.

The Riverside County Planning Commission will be hearing the project application at hearings on April 26 and May 4, and the Riverside County Board of Supervisors is expected to consider the quarry application sometime in July.

Detailed information about the plant and the complete Environmental Impact Report is available on the County of Riverside web page at http://www.rctlma.org/planning/content/temp/liberty_quarry.html.