From the archives of

::: COMMUNITY NEWS

Meeting participant Brad Sample, second from right, addresses the group. Other participants are, from left, Murietans Terry Hanson, Candy Chand and Michael Corbett and area rancher Jay Schneider, who's also chairman of the Cosumnes Community Planning Advisory Council.

County meetings on development end, with little agreement reached

Published Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Twenty-plus hours of county-facilitated meetings between developers and development opponents ended Monday without substantive agreement on any of the issues that brought them to the table.

The one thing the two sides agreed on is they will continue to pursue their goals through the county and the county planning process. A member of the Rancho Murieta Development Concerned Citizens Committee, which opposes current development plans, predicted the matter could well end up in court.

The meetings, which spanned nine weeks, also featured a two-hour tour of the community. The county Planning Department provided support and materials for the talks, which were conducted by a facilitator hired by the county. Supervisors Don Nottoli and Illa Collin attended as participants. Collin missed two meetings, including the last one.

About 70 members of the public attended the session, filling the Rancho Murieta Association Building meeting room.

"Clearly the process does not end here," said Alcides Freitas, the retired director of the county Department of Environmental Review and Assessment. As a participant in the talks, Freitas offered knowledge about the early planning for Rancho Murieta.

Like several of the others at the talks who didn't represent either the developers or the development opponents, he expressed frustration at the inability of the two sides to reach agreement about open space, tree preservation and other issues.

"It would have been much, much better if some fundamental agreements were to be reached through this dialogue," Freitas told the group. "… Every time there is a subdivision being proposed, there is an opportunity for public involvement, and I fear that the resolutions of those type of undecided issues are going to be far less favorable to both sides than having an opportunity to reach a decision at this level … There is no question in my mind that it is going to require a give and take on both sides … "

"For anyone who feels disappointed by this process, I think most of us understood this is not an agreement kind of situation," said RMDCCC member Candy Chand. She added that she had "no doubt" people in the community could decide to take the matter to court. "This is by no means over," she said.

Nottoli, whose district includes Rancho Murieta, noted that just reaching agreement about how to conduct the talks was "a bit of a challenge." In summation, he said he "did a lot of listening" and was grateful people "shared their thoughts, their concerns. … It's clear this community cares very deeply about the assets and values that are here and wants to protect them." The supervisor said he hopes for balanced decisions "that will provide a framework for preserving those things that are important …" and foresaw "a lot of work ahead" over the coming months and years.

"The hearing process provides a tremendous opportunity for public input," said Gerry N. Kamilos, who represented Cassano Kamilos Homes and the Pension trust Fund of the Operating Engineers during the talks. "At the end we'll end up with something we're all proud of."

There wasn't much in the way of dialogue between the two groups at the final meeting.

The RMDCCC started off by suggesting annexation as a topic for discussion. RMDCCC member Terry Hanson said annexation was the answer to the development issues. A separate homeowners association has been formed for new development on the North and copies of its CC&Rs have been provided to participants at the talks.

Since that didn't leave much room for discussion, the facilitator suggested moving on.

RMDCCC member Ted Hart then made a presentation on grading. As a video played on a TV turned towards the meeting participants, Hart commented on grading at other projects built by the Murieta Hills developers and maintained that the grading for the North would look the same as the South if developers carried out their grading plans for the Residences of Murieta Hills.

Kamilos disagreed, saying that the size of the lots and the amount of open space in the project meant the North property would present a different appearance. Hart and RMDCCC member Janis Eckard said custom homes could be accommodated on the property but production homes could not be.

Freitas said it was unrealistic to think grading can be avoided on the North in projects that have treeless, sloping areas. Like the developers, he said there was a trade-off between tree preservation and grading.

He noted that "an incredible amount of dirt was moved around" as part of the development of Murieta North by Operating Engineer trainees, since the goal was "to teach young people how to grade."

Hart said the soil was moved to create the golf courses and the streets, but land on the North was not contoured for development.

Open space was another issue that was commented on at the meeting. Eckard referred to a land-use chart that appears in the 1973 environmental document used to create the master plan approved by the county board of Supervisors in 1974. Chand told developers, "When you look at the 1,806 acres of open space, there is probably not anything any of you would be building if we were to really, really push for that."

Participant Jay Schneider, a neighboring rancher and the chairman of the Cosumnes Community Planning Advisory Council, commented, "This community has done a fantastic job of open space. … We fought for open space not only in this development but in the community as a whole and we won the open space issue."

Open space was the subject of a report presented at a county workshop last year. The report did not support claims that the open space acreage was included in the 1974 master plan. Rob Burness, the senior planner who wrote the report, retired April 1.

Last year, when asked about the significance of the 1973 document, DERA Director Joyce Horizumi said in an interview that the land-use chart reflects "information available at the time. … It has no bearing whatsoever. … There is no entitlement given through an EIR."

During the public comment period at Monday's meeting, a dozen members of the audience spoke and eight others submitted comments on paper.

Rancho Murieta Association Director Dick Cox was the first speaker. He emphasized that he was speaking as a private individual and not an RMA board member. He said the Mutual Benefit Agreement between the RMA and the PTF, owner of most of the remaining undeveloped property on the North, was adopted by previous RMA boards "without any input from our community whatsoever. … Had the community had input, I don't think the MBA would ever have been signed. We would probably still be in litigation with the Pension Trust Fund."