Our guest was Chuck Regalia, Santa Rosa’s Director of Community Development Department. We asked him to come to detail what’s happening with a new development proposal: the “2010” area. This is a 420 acre site that was included in the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in the 1996 ballot measure. The area was specified in the General Plan to not be developed any sooner than 2010.

Recently, project owners asked the city to initiate a Specific Plan process, along with an EIR, which are requirements spelled out in the General Plan language for this area. Community Development’s concerns lie with their recently greatly reduced staff in a time when they’ve been asked to follow through with already-expressed Council priorities. Even though the developers would have to fund the plan and EIR, it would require considerable staff time from several departments.

Questions arose about water supply availability and the changing nature of the Water Agency’s plans for meeting future needs. Because LAFCO, the Local Agency Formation Commission, controls annexations and usually requires logical boundaries for any annexation, the city would likely include in the annexation boundary the mobile home parks along Santa Rosa Avenue just to the west of the open land. They would be included in any residents’ vote protesting the annexation, so the likelihood of it happening is in question.

We proposed to send to the Council a letter detailing our concerns about going ahead with another large planning effort when city resources and staff are facing further reductions.

Anne E. Seeley