HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/12/2005 - STAFF REPORTS Dana Stewart and James McKinley, Palm Springs. 1-12-05
Greetings City Council Members,
This submission to the Architectural Committee and the Planning Commission is
presented to vou tonight so that you will see the connections of the wanton
disregard for input, other than from every mass developer in the valley. This is to
urge you not to ignore the health and welfare, and the rights of the people, over
the few private interests. Upon whose recommendation is it, that the Council
consider adopting resolutions in opposition?We will be speaking on Items 8, 9,
and 10 for as many times as it takes to complete this submission.
Insert Submission
On Item 10. We thought we were so darn broke?! The citizens of the town have
offered to conduct research and submit their findings to the General Plan Update
Committee. We repeat, we have many talented and authoritative volunteers, and
the price is right. If it will help you feel better, we can charge up to a half million
dollars for consulting, instead of the $700 to 930,000.00 recommended. No doubt
it would be biased towards massive development rather than redevelopment,
Smart development or Eco-development. Won't you consider the offer of the
citizens?We are strongly opposed to this expenditure as a way to rewrite the
General Plan criteria to which the developers must adhere, which is presently
circumvented by issuing PDDs on every project. We have concerns over the
Wal-Mart "Business-very-unfriendly " project. We 're concerned over the airport
expansion, after it was doubled just a few years back. We're concerned over
water usage on Section 14, which was warned of its unsustainability by the EPA.
We will continue to oppose the projects that ignore the public good, and the
City's regulations, in favor of special interests.
Greetings Planning Commission Members, 1-12-05
We are James McKinley and Dana Stewart of Palm Springs. We have been involved in
architecture and development for over 35 years. The past 15 years have been devoted to
research, demonstration and consulting in environmental technologies and eco-development.We
are Advisors to the Chino Canyon Neighborhoods Organization, which has members from 350
homes in several neighborhoods.
We have appeared before you on numerous occasions to require an Environmental Impact Study
(not just an EIR) on the developments for the Chino Canyon alluvial fan. The Funk and Wagnalls
Dictionary definition:Alluvial. Pertaining to, or composed of, earth deposited by water, inundation
or flood.We have two new words for you, "La Conchita". The community that has lost a dozen
lives, with a dozen more missing, and a dozen homes destroyed, had been assured by their
agencies that the new construction would contain the mountain above. They were wrong. We
have no doubt that litigation will follow. Did they ignore the need for a study?Welcome to Global
Warming, which we discussed with you last year.
Last Sunday, a huge boulder fell into Snow Creek because of fire damage and then flood
conditions. Earthquakes are affected by water seepage which makes the plates slippery.We had
a 4.3 at midnight last night. Chance is the fool's name for Fate. We want to know if you're willing
to take a chance?All that has been submitted,thus far, is an initial study,which is singularly
inadequate, and included a mitigation report. Having to file a mitigation report means that
something that is valuable and protected will be destroyed, and thus, have to be mitigated. We
have warned you, time and again, as to this danger. Neither report would be sufficient for this
highly eco-sensitive area. Mass grading,terracing, and Planned Density,which waives
restrictions, is inappropriate and out-of-place in the existing neighborhoods, and its construction is
difficult to justify without an assurance of its safety. Most of the homes were built in the 40s,then
stopped. Others, here and there, were individually added in succeeding decades. Residents have
had to undergo intense scrutiny. Many were denied.
Recent rains are demonstrating the difficulties and dangers on level land!Alluvial property has
deep channels and ravines, carved by nature over centuries,with most boulders the size of
trucks.Two feet down, you can run into ones that are impassable.
The developers and planners are repeating the mistakes of the past, and are not up-to-date on
current development—Smart development and Eco-development. These reports are not enough
to address the boulders that Nature has lodged into place. We must be absolutely certain that
the engineering of the percolation and channels will not further endanger homes that are downhill,
like ours(built in 1939),from flood conditions, and dislodged boulders and terrain.
We understand the difficulties and accommodations that developers undergo and appreciate their
efforts. However, you,and they, have completely dismissed our concerns, that they build to the
land, not try to reconstruct the land to fit their common, ordinary,flat-land designs. Thus, you
have the initiative and referendum placed on the March ballot by thousands of concerned Palm
Springs citizens.Who is paying to oppose them?Are our monies being used to do so?
The process is completely bass-ackwards. Property owners must be responsible for an
indeyendent EIS, before pen touches paper on design for development.We are here to insist that
the proper and essential studies be conducted before further consideration is given to any project
proposed for the Chino Canyon alluvial fan and other hillsides.We take strong exception with the
characterization of what, how much, and how many, aspects are to be mitigated.We warned you
about this mild El Nino.This our last warning to you-do NOT take another step forward in
pushing through the approvals on this, or any other, inept and dangerous hillside development,
without a thorough Environmental Impact Study.
Thank you. Dana L. Stewart and James F. McKinley (760) 864-4181