::: COMMUNITY NEWS

Environmental report for shopping center released

Published Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Sacramento County Department of Environmental Review and Assessment released the draft environmental impact report for the Murieta Gardens development last week and is now accepting comments from the public on the project. A planning commission hearing will be held after the comment period ends May 7. The document is available here.

The residential and commercial mixed use project is planned for 50-plus acres of wedge-shaped property situated along Murieta Drive across from the Plaza and Murieta Village and next to Rancho Murieta Airport.

The plan was first presented to the community by Doug Wiele of Foothill Partners in late 2002 at one of the "town hall" meetings Murieta Holdings developers conducted monthly for three years. The owner of the property is Regency Centers.

At a meeting in 2005, the Cosumnes Community Planning Advisory Council, a citizens advisory group, recommended rejection of the proposal after audience members criticized the density of the project, the lack of recreational amenities, shortage of parking and the encroachment on the airport.

The project was divided into two sections last year, although it's otherwise unchanged, according to DERA.

Murieta Gardens I includes plans for a 59,135-square foot supermarket, as well as office space, a self-storage and RV parking facility and church site. At one time, the Rancho Murieta Community Church planned to build on the site, but now intends to use property along Stonehouse Road donated by the Frank family.

Murieta Gardens II is a proposal for a 208-unit, single-family residential development that has 31 units of low-income housing.

Murieta Gardens I is a request for a rezone from an interim agricultural-residential zoning to a limited commercial zoning designation. Murieta Gardens II requests a use permit to allow the housing development and approval for the tentative subdivision map. Both Murieta Gardens II requests depend on Murieta Gardens rezone, according to the environmental document.

The report describes the site as flat, with few trees. Impacts related to airport compatibility are characterized as less than significant, but traffic impacts are considered significant and unavoidable, requiring developers to pay a share for improvements on Highway 16.

As stated by the developers, the objective of the project is to add retail and professional services that would enable residents "to become less dependent upon having to drive considerable distances to fulfill daily consumer and professional needs."

The alternatives to the project evaluated in the EIR include dropping the residential component; combining residential and commercial components in the same building for a true mixed-use development; clustering homes and using second-story or underground parking to create more open space and landscaped areas.

The Murieta Gardens developers are in the group of developers who are negotiating a financing and services agreement with the Community Services District for their projects. The terms provide for the expansion of the water treatment plant and additional wastewater disposal at developers' expense.