Memo Describing Eight Official Actions - May 20, 2017

To:

Mayor David Glass, Petaluma City Councilmembers Chris Albertson, Teresa Barrett, Mike Healy, Gabe Kearney, Dave King, and Kathy Miller

CC:

John Brown, City Manager, City of Petaluma

Bert Whitaker, Director, Sonoma County Regional Parks

David Rabbitt, Supervisor, Second District, Sonoma County Board of Supervisor

Bill Keene, General Manager, Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District

Alicia Giudice, Senior Planner, City of Petaluma

From:

Kelly Creek Protection Project (KCPP), jointly with Petalumans for Responsible

Planning (PetRP)

Date: May 20, 2017

Re: Eight Official Actions for the City Council to Take on the 2017 Scott Ranch/DavidonDEIR

1. Comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as interpreted by the state supreme court in the recent Banning decision. That requires the City, as lead agency, to coordinate and collaborate on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) with other key government agencies now, not later: the Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish & Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Sonoma County Regional Parks, and the City’s own Site Plan Architectural Review (SPAR) process.
2. Carefully review the factual evidence, community standards, potential consequences, and alternatives contained in the public comments submitted on the 2017 DEIR, as well as the 300 comments on the 2013 DEIR that still pertain to this virtually identical housing project.
3. Reject the Scott Ranch/Davion 2017 DEIR as incomplete and inadequate. Require updated professional studies and analysis of biological, traffic, hydrology, and other impacts and recirculation of a new, revised DEIR for public comment. These issues cannot just be addressed in the Final EIR. The DEIR is so fundamentally inadequate that CEQA requires the preparation and recirculation of a new revised DEIR.
4. Reject Davidon’s proposed amendments to Petaluma’s 2025 General Plan. The amendments would undermine the City’s general plan solely so Davidon could build more houses on this land.
5. Accept the unanimous recommendation of the City’s Planning Commission: there must be no housing units constructed south of Kelly Creek, given the critical wildlife habitat and unstable hillsides there and the extreme difficulties of accomplishing effective mitigation.
6. Ensure any approved Davidon project is consistent with all Policies in the City’s 2025 General Plan. As currently proposed, 35 lots violate General Plan policy mandates. Compliance with the 2025 General Plan would reduce the development footprint from 63 to fewer than 30 housing units. (See attached table and map prepared for Kelly Creek Protection Project.) In the revised DEIR, specify the additional lots that must be eliminated to mitigate the environmental impacts caused by the Project’s violations of the General Plan.
7. With $4 million in charitable funds now available, do not lose the opportunity to negotiate the purchase, at fair market value, of some or all of Davidon’s property interests, recognizing the development constraints of this site. The goal is to extend Helen Putnam County Regional Park down to D Street and ensure environmentally-sensitive recreational access.
8. Tell Davidon the handwriting is on the wall. Encourage them to meet and confer with KCPP, PetRP, the City and the County and to discuss in good faith, as a willing seller, a solution that benefits all parties.

For further information, contact Greg Colvin for KCPP colvin@adlercolvin.com or Susan Jaderstrom for PetRP (PetRP@comcast.net). Please regard this as a public comment on the Davidon DEIR.

Explanation of the Eight Official Actions