[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 14, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S7083]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING JANET FAIRBANKS

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I wish to offer a few words 
in memory of Janet Fairbanks, a California regional planner who passed 
away last month in her beloved hometown of San Diego.
  Janet Fairbanks was a visionary planner who brought people and 
communities together to plan for sensible, sustainable growth while 
protecting the natural environment.
  From 1980 until her retirement in 2006, Ms. Fairbanks helped guide 
the development of growth management and habitat conservation plans, 
first at the city of San Diego and later at the San Diego Association 
of Governments, SANDAG. Along with her technical skills and expertise, 
Janet was known for her outstanding ability to educate public officials 
and a wide array of stakeholders about the virtues of smart growth, 
conservation, and biodiversity--and then to bring these often divergent 
individuals and groups together to create plans that enabled 
communities to grow and thrive while preserving San Diego County's 
unique natural areas and resources.
  As a longtime member of the California Planning Roundtable, Ms. 
Fairbanks brought city and regional planners together with 
conservationists to protect some of California's most precious and 
endangered natural areas. And as an active member of the California 
Biodiversity Council, she brought a planner's comprehensive perspective 
to the Council's mission of protecting California's fragile 
biodiversity.
  Janet Fairbanks helped to make San Diego County a nationally 
recognized leader in regional planning and conservation. She will be 
sorely missed, but her work and legacy will live on in the beautiful 
communities she helped to create and the natural landscapes she helped 
to preserve.

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