Summer 2002 Newsletter
Update Moore Project:
On June 27, the neighborhood won it's first victory regarding the Moore Project whin the Snat Rosa Planning Commision failed to come up with the 4 votes necessary to rezone the project parcels that flall within our historic district to commercial of C-2 zoning.
The developer is now talking about appealing this decision to the City Council (the next and final step in the process). If this happens, we will be there to voice our concerns.
These are:
Traffic: there is nothing in this project that mitigates traffic generaltion by its teneants from moving through our neighborhood. The developer continues to stat that traffic will move down Healsdsburg Ave to B Street to third Street to gain access to Hwy 101. As we all know, and based on a study done by the City'd own Traffic Dept., most drivers cut through our neighborhood on Linclon or Tnth St to addess Hwy 101. The developers own traffic study projects an increase of 726 daily tips generalted by this project, many of them through our neighborhood including an increase of almost 50% on Lincoln Street.
Street Parking:
On---site parking is insufficient with only 82 spots for 123 bedrooms. The developers continue to use the City's Downtown Core District guidelines for mied use development which has no parking requirements. Were this project to only affect the downtown area, this might be acceptable. But the fact that it borders our neighborhood means that our street parking will be impacted by those teneats with more than one car and visitors who will surely find it easier to park on our streets than park further away and walk. The developer prefers to believe that these extra tenant cars than their visitors will park in the 7th Street parking garge. In reality, day use permits for this garage have been sold out since 1999 and night parking in similar garages hs not been successful due to auto vancalixm.
Project Garage Entrance/Exit:
Many ot the r=traffic and parking issues could be resolved if the project's B street entrance/exit were moved to Healsburg Ave and the block of Tenth Stbetwwn Healdsburg Ave and B street changed to one-way headed east. This would also provide a solution to the design issue whter the building turns it's "back" on our neighborhood presenting a gated garage front as an unfriendly streetscape.
While, our neighborhood has repeatedly stated we sould support this project if issues such as these were mitigated, we are portrayed as not supporting mixed-use development NIMBY's. The developer continues to ty=ry to impress on City staff that this project has been through at least three revisions just to appease residents of our neighborhood. In realit, the developer has never shown a genuine interest in working with our neighborhood on the design of this project. The design revisions he refers to were requested by the City's Cultural Heritage Board and Design Review Boards due to an inferior original design. In fact, early comments by the Design Review Board state: "The architecture dow not ahieve superior design quality and lacks the integrity of a "mixed-use" character, appears to "boxy", lacks sufficient architectural detail at windows and entries. The B Street elevation is massive and casts a shadow over the nearby bungalows and creates privacy issues. The mass of the building must be reduced." And by the Cultural Heritag eBoard:"The structure is not consistent withtthe St rose Neighborhood. There is too muh vertical wall against the one-story bungalows on B Street. The elevation on B Street looks cold and like a fortress. The long hard lines of the building are not pedestrian friendly."
Had the developer ever encouraged and embrace our input be would probably not be in this situation now. All we are asking for is the consideration and protection our neighborhood deserves as a historic district. So the question is - Is is mixed use ar all costs or is there some balance so that the impact on adjacent neighborhoods in considered (especially those where residents are preserving a slice of Santa Rosa History)? We hope the council will vote for a project that will be a win-win for both our neighborhood and the City.
Homeless Service Center
Catholic Charities Homeless Service Center at 600 Morgan Street provided mail, showers, laundry and other various services to the homeless. Currently, it is in the process of renewing it's use permit. To that end, Catholic Charities and the City have teamed together to ensure the Center and our neighborhood work on solutions for several areas that have become issues for some of our neighbors. In June we met to disucuss the issue of car-camping around the Center. As a result, the Center will be asking its staff to park on Morgan St and any clients of the Center to park in the staff parking lot so the duration of their stay can be monitored more easily. In addition, The City's security company for te Brookwood Homeless Center will also patro Morgan Street, and neighbors on Morgan Street are being asked to sign a petition to implement a residential permit parking program. There was also discussion on ways to reduce the speed of traffic on Morgan street (even thour this is not a result of the Center). The City will be putting up containers with trees to narrow the southern entrance onto Morgan Street and installing a traffic counter to monitor speed. Our next meeting witll be MOnday July 8 at 7 pm at the Fireside Room in the Catholic Chaities office at 340 Tenth Street (directly adjacent to the St Rose Church parking lot). Items to be discussed are : Public drinking and intoxication, litterint and after hours contacts/phone numbers neighbors can use for the Center. Everyone is welcome and enscouraged to attend.
Don't Wash Your Car Yet!
Th e work on our neighborhood's streets to replace sewer and water mains that started the week of May 13 is slated to take 6 months. As you may have noticed, first the crews are installing new sewrer mains, then they come through a second time to install the new water mains. Lastly, they will come thorugh a third and final time to resurface the streets. We look forward to returning to a dust-free life again in October!