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RP Council to Discuss new Northeast Development at meeting on Tuesday 9/10/19

Say hello to 14340 new road trips per day feeding Petaluma Hill Road and other arteries.

Rohnert Park City Council to act on proposed changes to allow more units and less buffer to Snyder Lane and to G Section and move forward with development of their signature sardine can development model over a beautiful oak meadow along a scenic corridor.

4 packs, Small lot homes, Zero lot lines, Apartments, Townhouses…
Rohnert Park’s tagline should be “Building the ghettos of tomorrow, today”.

If you have had enough with the traffic and congestion and are fed up with corrupt officials trying to bring the South Bay to the North Bay – show up and get your opposition on the record. Make sure to include water, traffic, scenic corridors, CEQA, Tiger Salamanders, Aquifer…

Why is it always about packing in more units, reducing parks, reducing buffers and reducing separation between homes in Rohnert Park?

Here is the agenda:
https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/423677/7A_NESP.pdf

Staff recommends that the City Council specifically discuss and provide recommendations regarding the following project components:
• A request for increased maximum density within the Specific Plan Area from 1,085 units to 1,434 units.
• A reduced buffer width along Snyder Lane from 200 foot wide buffer to 32 foot wide buffer.
• A reduction of the buffer between G Section and the project from 100 foot wide buffer to the minimum width necessary to achieve a visual corridor.
• Modify the park and open space configurations in the general plan which provides for an 8 acre park and linear trails to a proposed 5.8 acre park with three smaller parks (for a total of 10.8 acres of active parks) and linear trails.

Rohnert Park already has 4 major development projects in the pipeline with 5000 units in the works. Time for a moratorium and let’s see how those play out before we add any more.

Tell RP to give their development agency, that you pay for to help developers get these massive build-outs approved, a sabbatical.

Since the fires the traffic in Sonoma County has become unbearable and the quality of life that we came here for is going to be gone forever if we don’t put the brakes on this mindless development juggernaut.

When: Tuesday September 10 6:30 PM

Response to RP City Manager claim that drought doesn’t affect them

I regularly submit articles in the papers about the mess the Rohnert Park development machine is causing to greater Sonoma County, and raising the point that we are in the worst drought on record and are on water restrictions, so how does it make sense to add 5600 homes now?
Inevitably the City Manager writes back that Lake Sonoma is full, our wells are at capacity and the drought has miraculously bypassed Rohnert Park! So the sheeple should just leave them alone. And also it’s all legal and approved.

This article by Brenda Adelman examines the claim.

http://www.sonomacountygazette.com/cms/pages/sonoma-county-news-article-4643.html

Community Separators, Press Democrat Close to Home 12-6-15

Nice to see the article by Jake Mackenzie on the need to protect our community separators, “Close to Home: Keeping greenbelts amid crisis in housing”.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/4872694-181/close-to-home-keeping-greenbelts?artslide=0

However, it seems we have another case of the “Two Jakes”. This time it’s the Greenbelt  Alliance Board Member (Jake #1) and the Rohnert Park Councilman (Jake #2).

The part that Jake #1 left out is that the City Council of Rohnert Park, which he (Jake #2) is a member,  is the biggest threat to Community Separators in the County.

Petaluma Hill Road is a community separator and a designated Heritage Road. As such it should not be improved, widened, expanded according to the County Guidelines and General Plan.

The planned Rohnert Park developments abutting Petaluma Hill Road will add approximately 51600 new daily road trips, many on this bucolic country road, which is already designated as “congested” in the Sonoma County General Plan. This will incur the need to expand the road and there goes your community separator, thanks to Jake #2. Rohnert Park’s planned mitigation for the damage their new strip malls and tract houses will do includes “sound walls” on Petaluma Hill Road. If that’s not San Jose North, what is? Are sound walls the kind of separators we want in Sonoma County?

When Jake #1 spouts: “the county has prevented housing tracts and shopping malls from sprawling into our precious green places. By safeguarding adjacent unincorporated lands, community separators protect the urban growth boundaries around Sonoma County’s cities.” For full disclosure, he should mention what Jake #2 is doing.

I appreciate Councilman Mackenzie and Evans for speaking out in favor of the Community Separators. Now, we would like to see it followed up with a moratorium on Rohnert Park Developments on Community Separators, specifically, the University District Plan, Southeast Specific Plan, Northeast Specific Plan and Sonoma Mountain Village which combined will add 5160 new homes to the Petaluma Hill Road Scenic Corridor. Canon Manor is also of concern.

The Downtown area plans, near the Smart Rail, should go full speed ahead.

Each house generates 10 auto trips per day! – 51600 new trips on PHR

The average number of auto trips per house is 10 according to traffic engineers. It’s more for people closer to shopping areas. That includes, deliveries, trash, mail…

So, the new Rohnert Park subdivisions will generate 51600 new trips. Can Petaluma Hill Road handle that? Well, today I waited 10 minutes to drop my kid at Penngrove School.

http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/717

https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/subject_areas/national_household_travel_survey/daily_travel.html

 

Stop the RP development machine

I don’t mind when Rohnert park builds new subdivisions within their city – until they impact vital rural areas that are important to all citizens of Sonoma County and it’s environs. That’s why the planned 5160 new units along Petaluma Hill Road must be stopped. This project  shown above, at Rohnert Park Expressway and Petaluma Hill Road, is currently paving over key recharge points for the Santa Rosa Aquifer. During the worst drought, ever.