No matter how you look at it, Shasta County is everybody’s sweet dream. If it’s a bucolic lifestyle you seek, come and get it. Old timers and newcomers know a good thing when they see it and they want to hang on to it. The area’s natural beauty and its relatively low population levels make a winning combination.

When developers focus their lens on this Shangri-La, they see all that and more — which is good or bad, depending how you see it. It’s precisely the attractive environment that adds value to the projects. Freeway exposure along I-5 beckons with big bucks for commercial developers.

Cities are further attracted to development and stand to gain through tax revenues and jobs which contribute to strengthening and expanding infrastructures. Plus, the more business/development you attract, the more follows, further funneling money into city coffers.

It’s common knowledge that there’s trouble in paradise, though. Recent marathon sessions and decisions by the county’s supervisors and planning commissioners for the auto mall and the Shasta Ranch Mining project revolved around quality of life and lifestyle concerns. County-wide it seems everyone wants a share of the good life. Churn Creek Bottom residents can return to their state of pastoral bliss, but meanwhile Anderson courts Maxwell to open new rivers of tax revenue. This might raise a new alarm for South County residents already battling the Shasta Ranch Mining project, aka the gravel pit. While Tullis, Inc. is eager to go after the “gray gold” of alluvial gravel, opponents envision a future of diesel fumes, dioxins dug up and gravel truck versus school bus encounters.

If you look further west, Happy Valley residents are ruffling their feathers over the proposed North Fork Ranch development. While the development includes equestrian trails to help accommodate the local life style, bottom line is the developers believe it’s up and coming hot real estate or they wouldn’t be out there. Check out this week’s opinion poll question to see a sampling of the mixed response to that project.

Even a BMX biker group from Redding is hungrily eyeing the Volonte skate park in Anderson as another north state spot to enjoy their sport.

With so many seemingly competing interests and land use struggles, it seems likely that there will be winners and losers in the end. But maybe the challenge is to find a way that everyone can live together happily with their own slice of heaven. Compromise may be one option, but I think the developers already feel they’re doing that by complying with CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) requirements.