HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/5/2017 Item 7, Havlik
TO: City Council
FROM: Neil Havlik
SUBJECT: FROOM RANCH PROJECT PROPOSAL: Consent Agenda, Item #7, July 5, 2017
Councilmembers, at your meeting of July 5, 2017, you are being asked to authorize City staff to
advertise for proposals to prepare an environmental impact report for a proposed development
project which includes a large “continuing care retirement center” (CCRC) on the Froom Ranch
at Los Osos Valley Road and Calle Joaquin. This proposal also includes significant residential
and commercial development unrelated to the CCRC. The project would need to be annexed
into the City.
The original proposal was presented to the City Council on April 5, 2016. Unfortunately at that
time the Council took no action to defend the City’s General Plan from this proposal, which
violates many parts of the General Plan, especially in its environmental policies. Since then
there has been very little public involvement in this major project, and two focused proposals to
advisory bodies (one to the Park and Recreation Commission and one to the Cultural Heritage
Committee) were rejected by those bodies. All other discussions have been in meetings with
City staff, providing no further opportunities for public input. Indeed, you are being asked to
move forward on an application that City staff have not yet even deemed complete.
Annexations are a special class of request that comes into a City. The decision of the City
Council on an annexation cannot be appealed; therefore Council has great power in setting the
direction of any proposed annexation. The original proposal on April 5, 2016 was the perfect
opportunity for the Council to give such direction, or even say they were not interested in an
annexation. (Such actions have been done before.) It would have been easy to do so at that
time; but the Council did nothing. As I recall the meeting there were virtually no requirements
placed upon the project sponsors. Council’s lack of input at that time constituted a failure of
leadership, making your leadership today more challenging. It has been fifteen months since this
matter was last before Council, and it was a different Council.
Fortunately, due to delays in getting the project application together, and because it is ultimately
an annexation, there is still time for the current City Council to give direction on it, and to stick
up for the City’s current General Plan. Specifically, it is recommended that the City Council:
1. Direct the project sponsors to eliminate development above the 150 foot elevation, except for
a small park and historic site adjacent to the existing Irish Hills Natural Reserve in the area
currently used for equipment and material storage.
2. Direct the project sponsors to eliminate the sweeping realignment of Froom Creek, which will
otherwise destroy a significant wetland along Calle Joaquin already protected by a conservation
easement. The creek does not need to be realigned in order to be restored; indeed, realignment
as proposed would be anything but a restoration.
By imposing these two requirements, the Council would significantly modify the project and
RFP, but more importantly would immediately eliminate numerous significant environmental
impacts of the project while still allowing suitable development on the site. Doing so would also
honor the views and recommendations of the City’s Park and Recreation Commission and
Cultural Heritage Committee. Specifically, by taking this action Council would:
(1) eliminate the environmental impacts of development on the plateau area with its many rare
plants and high visibility from much of the community;
(2) eliminate the need for a steep road to access the plateau which would destroy the tranquility
of the existing city-owned open space there;
(3) eliminate the need for a water tank still higher on the hillside with its own attendant impacts
and possible violation of a conservation easement;
(4) eliminate the tremendous--and overwhelmingly negative--environmental and visual impacts
of the realignment of Froom Creek, which would in fact create a large and unsightly flood
control channel in the area while destroying the wetland alongside Calle Joaquin;
(5) at least reduce impacts of new road construction and new traffic on Los Osos Valley Road in
a problematic location;
(6) allow for a community park proposed as part of the project to be placed where it should be,
next to Froom Creek and the Irish Hills Natural Reserve; and
(7) allow for complete or at least partial preservation of the historic Froom Ranch buildings as
recommended by the Cultural Heritage Committee.
I am sorry to not be able to be present at your meeting, but I am currently out of the State visiting
family members and was not aware that this matter would be before you until last week.
Thank you.
Neil Havlik, PhD,
City of San Luis Obispo Natural Resources Manager (retired),
CNPS San Luis Obispo County Chapter Ad Hoc Froom Ranch Committee