By Ruby Lee Schembari
The Scotts Valley City Council voted 4-0 at its Aug. 20 meeting to advance plans for a 19-townhome development on Erba Lane, but with some caveats.
The council approved the design of the Ridgewood West Development under the conditions that the developer, City Ventures, increase garage sizes for storage of bikes and trash, allow for city-enforced parking, and allow for soundproofing features for the houses closest to Scotts Valley Road. Council member Allan Timms abstained from the vote.
Darian Dennler, a representative of City Ventures, said he would work with city staff to address their concerns.
Six or seven local residents spoke at the meeting to express their concerns about the development.
One member of the community, Val Hajduk, said having no driveways in the development was dangerous.
“People are going to be pulling out of these very small garages with their very large vehicles. They’ll probably have two vehicles per household, so people are going to be backing out of these garages without being able to see where they’re going,” Hajduk said.
Hajduk was not the only person concerned about safety. Patricia Schroeck, a resident of Ridgecrest Drive, and president of the Homeowners Association, says that she and 12 other owners are concerned about the development because they perceive it as unsafe.
“If you look at Buildings 1 and 2, their garages directly open to the curb and the driveways are so short that you can’t see oncoming traffic when you back out of the garage,” she said. “I think the calculation that you have for a three-bedroom townhome, with only two cars is incorrect. You see in our family, we have four cars right now.”
Schroeck then explained that the teenagers in her household are old enough to drive.
“So assume in a three-bedroom house, you might have three cars. That makes it 57 cars for that development, you don’t have enough parking,” she said.
After members of the community spoke their piece, City Council member Steve Clark said that he is disappointed that the developer did not try to reach out to the community like he hoped they would.
“I’m disappointed that there wasn’t proactive outreach in the neighborhood, and more effort to communicate with them as opposed to relying on them coming to the Planning Commission meeting,” Clark said.
The Scotts Valley Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve the land division, environmental and design reviews at its June 12 meeting, noting the requirements of California law, SB 330, which aims to address the state’s housing crisis by streamlining approvals and permits. The law actually prohibits local governments from enacting new laws or moratoriums that would reduce the number of new housing units allowed.
However, there were also conditions of approval, which consisted of increased garage sizes, more street parking, and more ADA units.
In response to the conditions of approval set in June, the developer has changed Buildings 1 and 2 to be divided into separate three-unit and five-unit homes. Additionally, the sidewalk was extended to four feet, which will now feature a landscape strip, curb, and gutter.