Conversations with Candidates at our September 21st meeting

Our next meeting will be a chance to talk with candidates running for the CSD and Fire Department ("Water District") boards of directors. Response from the candidates has been good -- it's possible that all 14 will be there. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday the 21st in the El Dorado Hills Library.  Some additional information is at this link.


Planning street width for new housing

How wide should streets be in new residential areas? Some of us think we can do better for future homeowners than some current developments do.

On Tuesday, September 12th, the Board of Supervisors' agenda included an item (06-1445) on its Consent Calendar to approve the Final (subdivision) Map for Serrano Village K1/K2 Unit 2. This is a late phase of detailed planning that began with adoption of the Development Agreement for the El Dorado Hills (Serrano) Specific Plan..

Through streets in this part of Serrano have good width, but almost all of the new homes will be on 28-foot wide cul de sacs. With each of two cul de sacs hosting about a dozen homes, they're a bit longer than such streets in most older parts of EDH. Many EDH owners have seen problems with narrow streets in other urban areas and would consider 28 feet far from ideal, especially since these streets have no sidewalks. Even without a pedestrian, let alone kids playing in the street, such a street can safely accommodate two-way traffic with no curb parking, or one-way traffic with parking on only one side of the street.

It's tight, it increases risk to both pedestrians and vehicles, and it creates major parking problems. Most parking necessarily is in garages and driveways, and parking for even a small party gets tough. There's a tendency in such places for homeowners to sound off justifiably about even low speeds being a risk to their kids, and sometimes HOAs with private streets adopt aggressive tow-away policies.

Can we do better in the future?  Should we recommend that the County should adopt a standard for at least a 36-foot roadway, with 40 feet preferred?