From: cienfuegos@igc.org
To: Humboldt neighbors re 17-unit subdivision in Manila...
To neighbors across Manila and beyond,
The ad-hoc group of Manila Neighbors which has been meeting for a number of months now to challenge the inappropriate Scott Riley 17-unit subdivision in our neighborhood wants to invite all of you who receive these emails to come on out tomorrow evening, Thursday May 3rd at 6pm, for the Planning Commission meeting where the Riley proposal will be on the agenda for the first time. It's a very packed agenda, so we're not guaranteeing that our issue will be heard Thursday night.
Nevertheless, we hope that dozens of concerned residents across the Humboldt Bay area will recognize the importance of this meeting, and that we're able to pack the chambers with articulate voices of opposition. This is NOT just a Manila issue - and NOT a NIMBY issue. it's about what kinds of development the residents of Humboldt Bay wish to allow in our communities in the future, and how these critical decisions should be made.
If you'd like to attend, but don't want to sit through hours of other issues, please consider doing one of the following:
1) Email me your home or cell number (no later than 5pm Thursday), and we'll give you a call from the meeting once our agenda item is about to be heard, or
2) Watch the meeting on Cable Access Channel 10.
Either way, as soon as our agenda item comes up, we need each and every one of you to be standing there with us in the Supervisors Chambers in the Courthouse building.
If our agenda item gets tabled, it will be continued to the meeting on Thursday, June 7 at 6pm. And if you can't make either meeting, please consider writing a letter to your Supe or to the Planning Commission. And please cc a copy of your letter to us at
Now, here's details of the Riley development, in case you haven't seen them yet.....
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Local Manila resident Scott Riley is proposing a 17-unit very dense subdivision of 2 and 3 story homes on 3.4 acres of his 8.5 acre property, which is mainly healthy intact willow wetlands and significant coastal dunes at the edge of Manila, about 1/4 mile south of the Manila Community Center, at 1521 Peninsula Drive (Parcel# 400-131-05). Zoning would have to be changed as he has requested a Planned Unit Development (PUD) which the neighborhood actively opposes.
The development could be precedent-setting county-wide in a number of harmful ways.
None of us are opposed to this property being "developed" as long as it matches the existing neighborhoods low density, and doesn't destroy any of the existing dunes. That would probably require that only a very small number of homes get built, all with Peninsula Drive frontage, as is the norm in the rest of the neighborhood.
The main issues of concern about this development are:
* 17 two and three story houses squeezed onto 3.4 acres of mostly dune-covered wildland - an unprecedented density in our village - in a Planned Unit Development (PUD) which throws out the existing zoning requirements. Some lots would be smaller than 4000 square feet when existing zoning requires minimum lot sizes of 20,000 sq.ft. And property frontages of as little as 27 feet while current zoning requires 75 foot wide minimums.
* 6500 cubic yards of dunes (about 650 dump truck loads) to be bulldozed and moved (described as "dune restoration" in the proposal!).
* Storm runoff from the new street, sidewalks, rooves, would be directed into the adjacent wild intact wetlands.
* Project is being marketed as the county's first solar/green subdivision. Amazingly, John Ash Group is the primary architect, which we thought had a higher standard of environmental responsibility in the projects they agree to participate in, as we believe this project is mostly a green scam.
* 30+ cars all coming out of one cul-de-sac driveway multiple times each day, on a narrow road with no sidewalks or walkable shoulders in a quiet rural neighborhood.
This is not a NIMBY issue. No developer should be allowed to place a densely packed subdivision of large homes on top of a wild dune ecosystem adjacent to a healthy willow wetland in a rural neighborhood on a narrow road.
To get involved, or for more info about the ongoing efforts of Manila Neighbors to stop this development, please contact any of the core members of our neighborhood group: Aryay Kalaki, Tim Ayres, Michael Fennell, Colleen Clifford and Ian Davidson, Dan Edrich, Gordy Anderson, Amanda Pollock & Trinity Fales, Ray Grosveld, and myself, Paul Cienfuegos. Any one of us would be happy to hear from you, if you know some of us personally. Or write to us at
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UNMET TRANSIT NEEDS COMMENTS
From: "Jennifer Berman"
Subject: Still time for UNMET TRANSIT NEEDS COMMENTS, Climate News
Dear Concerned Climate Protectors,
There is still time to submit written comments for the unmet transit needs process. There was not a very good showing of people at the HCOAG unmet transit needs hearing, so your input is needed now! You can do this online via the Green Wheels website:
http://www.humboldt.edu/~wheels/joomla/content/view/191/
Just express what your personal unmet needs are: more frequent bus service, weekend bus service, neighborhood vans to get you to the main line, better bike and walking trails...etc.
Community involvement in our local planning priorities may be the most important step you can take to protect the climate.
Here is some other interesting climate protection information:
Read Al Gore's 10 pt plan to stabilize the climate
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/21/10136/4144
Read James Hansen's testimony to Congress
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/testimony_26april2007.pdf
Read all the latest global warming news here:
http://www.eesi.org/publications/Newsletters/CCNews/4.20.07%20CCNews.htm
Thanks, Jennifer
Jennifer Berman, Coordinator
Redwood Alliance Climate Action Project
707-822-6171 climatechange@redwoodalliance.org
http://redwoodalliance.org/
PO Box 293 Arcata, CA 95518
CAP meets 2nd and 4th Mondays, 5:30 pm
1175 G St Arcata, N of Wells Fargo, upstairs
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