Panel OKs dairy ban near park: Bill to protect Allensworth site moves on in Assembly.

Byline: E.J. Schultz

Apr. 19--A bill to ban dairies near the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park passed its first legislative test Wednesday, drawing cheers from black leaders who say pollution from two proposed dairies would desecrate what they consider to be sacred ground. With the colonel's 92-year-old granddaughter looking on, the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee approved the bill on a 9-4 vote. Republicans on the committee, including Visalia's Bill Maze, opposed the measure as a precedent-setting threat to local oversight of land-use decisions. Tulare County gave the dairies plenty of scrutiny, Maze said. "If we allow this kind of bill to pass, we've thrown all that out." But Democrats, including Hanford's…