El Dorado Hills Citizens Alliance
News, August 20, 2006
www.edhca.net     email: alliance@edhca.net


Board of Supervisors to consider permanent Traffic Impact Fees
Tuesday, August 22

The Board of Supervisors will consider setting Traffic Impact Mitigaton (TIM) fees at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 22nd.  Proposed fees are lower than the current interim TIM fees.  The Citizens Alliance would like to raise the question of whether the fees being proposed will be adequate to keep pace with traffic growth in El Dorado Hills.

Meetings this week:
Tuesday, August 22 
El Dorado County Board of Supervisors
County Government Headquarters (330 Fair Lane, Placerville)
Hearing on TIM fees at 2:00
[agenda not available on the County web site at this time, check BOS agenda web page later]

Wednesday, August 23, 1:30 p.m.
SACOG, Technical Advisory Committee for the Elk Grove Connector:
Rancho Cordova City Hall, American River Room  (2729 Prospect Park Drive, Rancho Cordova)
Agenda as a web page        Agenda as a pdf document

Thursday, August 24,  8:30 a.m.
El Dorado County Planning Commission
County Government Headquarters Building C (330 Fair Lane, Placerville)
The afternoon session beginning at 1:30 p.m. includes several items relating to General Plan interpretation and Zoning.
Agenda        Summary of agenda with links to attached reports


Notes from the past week:

The Board of Supervisors approved the Special Use Permit for use of a building in the El Dorado Hills Business Park for live theater performances. The Citizens Alliance did not take a position on this issue, but welcomes this decision. Our understanding of the BOS action is that it is a step forward in community enhancement, taken with appropriate prudence and consideration of the concerns of homeowners near the theater. We anticipate that the Backlot Theater will be valuable to EDH residents and that it will be an asset for our community.

The County Planning Commission held two committee meetings on interpretation of General Plan Policy 7.4.4.4 for protection of Oak Woodlands. We understand that additional meetings will be scheduled to consider Policy 7.4.4.5, 7.4.4.5.1, and 7.4.4.5.2 on protection of native vegetation and landmark trees, with particular emphasis on native oaks.

The Citizens Alliance held its first meeting with a speaker. Ken Schoniger presented a perspective of general issues in County government, as seen in the light of his career experience in top management of other large organizations, including two Fortune 500 companies.  Ken's interest in County government arises in part from his past service on the Grand Jury. His presentation was generally critical, especially in areas where strategic planning and management structure intersect. His talk closed on a positive note that appropriate changes are achievable, and a good Q&A dialog followed. A total of about 20 to 25 people attended the meeting.

Web site work on edhca.net has been  gradually advancing, most visible changes are small. One area of improvement in the last week will benefit the Blog page by making comments usable. The Blog had been experiencing automated comment flooding attacks, which posted up to several hundred comments per day. The Blog now validates the email address given in a comment submission: It permits posting a comment only if that email address matches an address in our largest email distribution list. This is an interim check until we add logic for session logins.