April 7, 2007

Task Force update

Community updated on latest news at District 8 Roundtable meeting

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

Evergreen residents and property owners met April 4 to discuss the probability of building new homes and businesses in the four areas delineated in the update to the general plan.

The planning department offered little news except to urge community members to attend both the city council study session on April 30 at 1 p.m. and the final council hearing on May 15 at 7 p.m. in council chambers. Both Deputy Planning Director Laurel Prevetti and Senior Planner Mike Mena said they would be able to speak for two minutes at both meetings.

Prevetti and Mena suggested that residents contact Jim Zito, Bob Levy and Sylvia Alvarez to let them know what they want to see. The three are scheduled on the council agenda for a study session panel.

The Planning Department is working with Keyser-Marston Associates to fill the gaps in the housing numbers that the city council questioned last December. The consultants are also conducting a fiscal study to determine the impact on the general fund in relation to operations and maintenance in the proposed development areas. Those studies are expected to be complete by the middle or toward the end of this month—just in time for the April 30 study session.

“The studies can’t be late,” Prevetti said. “Our goal is to get the information to the city council on April 30 and then provide preliminary results. The consultants are working fast and furious to get it done.”

Developers have lowered some of their housing estimates, and their contributions toward amenities from $225 million to $221 million. They dropped housing to 665 at the golf course site and to 1,690 at the Campus Industrial site. Those numbers still don’t jive with planning, which suggests 650 for the golf course and 1,275 for Campus Industrial. Proposals for Arcadia and Evergreen Valley College sites are 1875 and 500, respectively.

Residents, however, favor neither proposal.

“I can deal without the Thompson Creek Trail and some of the other amenities, but I can’t deal with 5,000 new homes,” said Sherry Gilmore, who served on the task force.

She also reiterated that developers said they were going to build on “large lots of 4,000 square feet.

“That’s not a very big lot,” she said.

Gerry De Young, representing Arcadia Development Company, claimed that developers had offered pieces of land to the city for amenities, leaving it up to the city and community to decide what to put there.

“The developers are trying to meet the community’s desires,” he said.

Outside the meeting, some residents discussed the upcoming vote and the potential impact new members on the city council may have on the overall process.

“I can’t guess what may happen with three new city council members who weren’t involved in the December session,” said Zito, a task force member. “I have a strong feeling that the city council won’t be interested in filling the entire 320 acres in the Campus Industrial site.”

His major concerns are community participation.

“I want to ensure that planning and the city council employs community participation [in their decision] even though the task force was officially completed last November,” he said.

Prevetti and Mena indicated that the Planning Department hopes to hold a second community meeting between the council study session and the evening hearing. That date will likely be posted on the web site early next week, said Mena.