LAKEPORT – The rate at which the Middletown and Coyote Valley area is expected to grow is in question as the public hearing process for the Valley Oaks project environmental impact report (EIR) moves forward.
Jean Kapolchok, principal of the Santa Rosa planning firm J. Kapolchok and Associates, told the Lake County Planning Commission Thursday that an economic analysis performed for the EIR found that the project”s business component would not have a detrimental effect on the existing businesses in the Middletown area.
“The analysis of the potential for urban blight by the creation of this enormous amount of new commercial area was based on a 6-percent growth rate, which I don”t think is reasonable. That is bubble growth,” Lake County Sierra Club Chairwoman Victoria Brandon said.
The proposed development would be built adjacent to the gated Hidden Valley Lake subdivision in Middletown. In addition to the 380 homes, developer Ken Porter of the Sonoma firm Kimco Development is proposing senior housing, an assisted living facility and five clusters of commercial development totaling approximately 30 acres.
Lake County Senior Planner Emily Minton said she would need to confirm the growth rate used in the study, but said 6 percent did sound high. Brandon noted that the Middletown Area Plan – a subset of the county”s updated General Plan – projects the area will grow at a rate of 3 percent.
“The area allowed for commercial space could be shown to be more than the community can reasonably absorb over the planning lifetime of 10, 15, 20 years,” Brandon said.
Third-generation Hardester”s Market owner Ross Hardester said previously he was concerned that the project”s 30-acre business component would create competition for existing businesses and turn Middletown into a “ghost town.”
“The issue is not an issue of competition, it”s not even an issue of vacancy. The issue is would the impact be so severe that vacancy would occur to an extended period of time that that in turn would result in urban decay?” Kapolchok said.
Porter said after the hearing that the housing element of the project would be built in phases over three to five years, and that the business element would be market-driven. He said construction wouldn”t begin until at least 2010.
“We don”t want Middletown to become a ghost town,” Porter said.
The EIR document is available online at www.co.lake.ca.us, and the deadline to review it and make comments for the record is 5 p.m. today.
The date of the next public hearing is yet to be announced. Minton said comments received by 5 p.m. today will be incorporated in the EIR document and addressed individually. She said verbal comments after that point can be addressed at future hearings.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com or call her direct at 263-5636 ext. 37.
