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The first public announcement of the supermarket planned for the commercial land surfaced when this sign appeared recently.

Development update: RMA acquires parks, possible building moratorium and more

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Updated Wednesday, September 29, 2004
First published Tuesday, September 28, 2004

The long-awaited county Board of Supervisors' workshop on land use in Rancho Murieta is only part of a recent surge of development-related activity.

Among recent activities are the possibility of a building moratorium on the South, the acquiring of park sites, planning for a water treatment plant expansion, and the naming of the supermarket that would anchor the commercial site.

Details on these and more follow:

Awaiting water, South developer faces building moratorium

South developer Reynen & Bardis is facing a county-imposed moratorium on building although the Community Services District has determined there is enough capacity in the present water treatment plant to justify overriding a cap on building permits imposed by a county ordinance.

"We're the ones who set the cap," said Greg Hall, acting CSD general manager.

Hall explained that the condition limiting the South developer to 690 building permits unless a new water plant was built was based on a build-out estimate for the North. Rob Burness, senior planner for the county, informed the CSD earlier this month that Reynen & Bardis had reached that number and a hold would be placed on new permits. Hall referenced wording in the ordinance that says the water treatment plant expansion is due "unless verification is provided by the Rancho Murieta Community Services District that adequate water treatment capacity is available to serve additional units."

The CSD sent a letter to the county authorizing Reynen & Bardis to take out an additional 50 permits, Hall said.

At Tuesday's workshop at the Board of Supervisors, Burness said the county will continue to withhold building permits until the CSD provides more information about the availability of treated water for 50 more homes.

The South developer and developers on the North are in the process of moving forward with plans to expand the water treatment plant to accommodate future development. The installation of a state-of-the-art membrane filtration system is expected to take about 18 months. All costs of the project would be paid by the developers, including upgrading one of the two phases of the plant now in operation.

RMA acquires parks

A key portion of the Mutual Benefit Agreement between the Pension Trust Fund of the Operating Engineers and the Rancho Murieta Association was carried out late last week when the RMA received title to Lake Clementia and Stonehouse parks as well as park sites at Lake Calero and on Murieta Parkway.

Riverview Park will eventually be deeded to the RMA as a condition of development of the Riverview subdivision. It is currently owned by South developer Reynen & Bardis.

"It's definitely a milestone for us," said RMA General Manager Greg Vorster about the acquisition on Monday.

"It solves a lot of things that have gone on forever here," said Greg Hall, acting general manager of the Community Services District.

The property transfers resulted from the settlement of lawsuits between the RMA and the PTF, and the CSD and the PTF. The terms of the RMA's settlement are contained in two documents, the Letter Agreement and the MBA.

With the exception of Stonehouse, which was owned by the CSD, all the park sites were transferred from the PTF to the RMA. The CSD received a 10-acre parcel adjoining its offices on Highway 16 from the PTF.

The CSD facilitated the transfer of the properties.

Supermarket announced for commercial site

A sign announcing the coming of Murieta Gardens, a commercial center anchored by a Bel Air supermarket, appeared on the property across from the Plaza recently.

It's been two years since Douglas Wiele of Foothill Partners appeared at a community meeting and outlined plans for the 52-acre commercial site located behind the Country Store. Those plans included a supermarket, a drug store, shops and office space, 216 houses, a self-storage facility and acreage for the Rancho Murieta Community Church to build a church.

Last week, Wiele confirmed that Bel Air had signed a lease. The lease is contingent on the number of rooftops in the community.

Wiele said an application for the project had been submitted to the county and he expects public hearings to be held beginning early next year.

He said a general plan amendment will not be required for the housing since "less intensive land uses are permitted in commercial districts as a rule."

Wiele met with members of the local aviators' club this spring to address their concerns over locating the housing element next to the airport.

He said he had also received a letter from the owners of the airport and agreed to their requests for sound insulation and deed restrictions for the houses, which will be built by U.S. Homes.

Regency Centers, a national shopping center developer, purchased the property last year.

Builders to buy Murieta Hills, the Retreats

Sale of the Residences of Murieta Hills and the Retreat land could be completed as soon as Oct. 1, according to Murieta Holdings developer Gerry N. Kamilos. He said Warmington Homes and Woodside Homes of California Inc., the builders named for Murieta Hills, plan to purchase the property before the tentative map is approved by the county. Kamilos and his partner, Robert J. Cassano, will purchase the three Retreat properties.

Kamilos said the buyers are relying on the master plan as a "legal, binding document" and "historically what's been done" in Rancho Murieta in making the decision to complete the purchase of the properties at this time.

Sale of the properties is expected to trigger the funding mechanism for a new North Gate. The Mutual Benefit Agreement calls for $1.4 million to be deposited in an escrow account for rebuilding the gate and making landscape improvements once 333 lots are sold. That is the total number of lots planned for the two projects.

Riverview subdivision map resubmitted

At the Cosumnes Community Planning Advisory Council meeting last week, the issue wasn't so much the resubmission of an expired subdivision map that would put 154 homes on 57 acres in the South as it was development in Rancho Murieta.

The council lacked a quorum and no planning department representative was present to act as an advisor to the group, as is customary. In the end, after almost an hour of discussion, the Riverview subdivision map was tabled, but not before CCPAC Chairman Jay Schneider, a neighboring rancher, imparted some words of advice to development opponents who spoke.

Candy Chand, spokesperson for the Rancho Murieta Development Concerned Citizens Committee, characterized the map for the Riverview subdivision as "bad" and said a complete environmental review should be required since it was being resubmitted.

But she made it clear to the council that her concerns went beyond the project at hand when she asked them to support efforts to get the county to "rein in" developers and "make all developers do the right thing."

Both she and Terry Hanson, founder of the RMDCCC, emphasized issues that are included in the RMDCCC's petition, which netted more than 2,000 signatures. Chand provided a thick copy of the signed petition to the council for the duration of the discussion.

Hanson said development was "running rampant" and a "time-out on building" was needed until the master plan could be reviewed. Chand referred to an open space acreage figure that appears in a 1973 environmental impact report and said the number of homes planned for Rancho Murieta needed to be reduced "to give us some of our open space back."

Mike Winn, vice president of Reynen & Bardis, pointed out that the developer has "invested in this property relying on entitlements" and formed bond districts "to pay for millions of dollars of infrastructure. … This is a continuation of a larger master plan that's been reviewed … dozens of times ..."

Schneider commented, "If one side thinks that they have vested rights … and the other side doesn't (agree), it's not for us to get in the middle. … We're an advisory council. We're neighbors."

Schneider related his involvement in open-space issues over the years and his familiarity with Rancho Murieta. He said wildlife is more abundant now than before the community was developed because of the water that's available.

"Be careful what you ask for when you say you want everything that was approved in 1969 and '71 and '72," he cautioned the development opponents, "because you selectively want it."