BELLA TERRA & NOW CHAPTER 11

RED ROCK NEWS – 7-4-08 …reports … By-Synergy (Bella Terra) files for Chapter 11 ………. This headline will be received by many with muffled joy masking the feeling he got what he deserved. I have never met Mr. Zito, the principal in By-Synergy and the Bella Terra developer, personally, though I have corresponded indirectly with him during his application phase with ADEQ respecting the wastewater treatment system he proposed.

I must admit upon reading this article I was not unhappy with the obstacles, Mr. Zito faces today respecting Bella Terra. As I began to investigate my feelings I was surprised at what I discovered.

Watching Zito from afar I judged him to be pompous, bombastic, ego centric and a bit of a bully. Looking at my own reflection in the mirror I saw a similar image being reflected back to me. Whoa, now, what’s this…? I could in that moment easily conjure up a number of quite rational CYA statements releasing me as it were from any culpability. Upon further introspection I see I loath Zito because he was able to successfully manipulate the artificial road blocks we placed in his path as he marched forward with his Bella Terra project. I found I was angered as he made each road block domino fall as he trudged forward. As each barrier was passed collectively we sighed he won’t get by the next one, you can be sure of that.

What I learned as I watched the Bella Terra project unfold was those institutions we endorse are not controlled by us. They’re controlled by them. These institutions in which we place so much faith since they were formed, evolved to reflect their positions as we in silence and ignorance dwell.

Bella Terra, a hot button issue became, I believe largely as the result of developer and regulator arrogance. A grossly unwise decision was made by Zito to lay bare the land which was home to an orchard for years and years. An open scar revealed for all to see to contemplate. Enter now ADEQ and the ensuing chaos and haranguing about the sewage treatment plant. From the “get-go” ADEQ lost control and could not easily orchestrate the outcome as they most often have been successfully able to do from afar. That ADEQ would grant to Bella Terra a permit for their sewage treatment plant was honestly for me, never in doubt. It was simply a matter of time as the deck was stacked and not … to serve, nor to protect … the public (us) but to support Arizona’s economic growth.

As I looked into that mirror I saw I was angry at Zito because the he bested you and me. Yea, he played with a stacked deck but one which we arguably allowed to evolve before our very eyes. We were content to have our attention deflected to the Simpson’s on TV, or the Suns, D/Backs games, or the 19th watering hole pub at the old golf club. We did not participate, we did not provide oversight, we chose instead a far more passive “coach-potato” role. That was the extent of our accountability and responsibility. Those institutions, like ADEQ, we were taught to believe designed and designated … to serve to protect … really do, only it’s not us, but them and it works exceedingly well.

The current unfortunate financial circumstances surrounding Mr. Zito’s Bella Terra project allows me an opportunity to take another breath and reflect and into that mirror relook. There are projects large and small which today we choose to ignore, to look the other way, but they are proceeding forward still following that same time honored path as Bella Terra. We can return to our complacent passive choice of oversight, becoming in the moment alarmed should another Bella Terra seemingly appear overnight and feign we did not know.

The truth is - we do not care.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
William Shakespeare