Lesarra Development and traffic impacts

Lesarra Attached Homes is a development planned to include 160 units of attached single family housing (condominiums) in the Valley View Specific Plan area. Its sales office opened in Town Center on May 19th. In terms of traffic impact it will generate about 500 trips per day, mainly on Valley View Parkway, White Rock Road, Latrobe Road, and US 50. The developer is now seeking to eliminate certain traffic mitigation measures as obstacles to timing of construction and occupancy of this development. Details are described in County Planning Services' Staff Report for this request.

Lesarra's Tentative Subdivision Map was approved more than a year ago, with Conditions of Approval that are consistent with Measure Y and the corresponding General Plan policies to mitigate for traffic impacts prior to introduction of new traffic. Most of the mitigation measures for traffic to be generated by Lesarra consist of road system improvements already completed or planned by El Dorado County.  Timing gates for various requirements in the language of the Conditions occur at recordation of a Final Map, issuance of Building Permits, and issuance of  a First Occupancy Permit. An additional amendment is deletion of requirements to dedicate a portion of Valley View Parkway to the County as a public road and to form a Zone of Benefit to fund its maintenance.

First occupancy is the most critical milestone for traffic mitigation, this is when housing occupancy begins to generate traffic. The proposed changes to Conditions of Approval eliminate a requirement that three specific sets of County road improvements must be substantially complete before first occupancy. Also deleted is a requirement that all of these road improvements either be completed or have a public contract awarded and executed prior to the start of construction in the Lesarra development.

A Citizens Alliance concern is that the remaining requirements are essentially those that in the past have left many programmed road system improvements deferred for many years. A current example, widening Green Valley Road, is not yet complete despite having been listed on the DOT Capital Improvement Plan with an identified funding source at least as long ago as 1991, 16 years ago. Such delays are why Measure Y, as embodied in General Plan Policy TC-Xa, include a requirement for having safe and adequate roads and highways in place as development occurs.

This is a topic for discussion within the Citizens Alliance at this date. We will submit comments on it to the Planning Commission prior to its consideration of Lesarra's request at its June 14th meeting. In general terms we probably will express a preference for leaving Lesarra's Conditions of Approval substantially as they are instead of changing them. The main objective is to assure that new road network capacity precedes new traffic load.

This is the last item on the agenda of the County Planning Commission at its June 14th meeting. We anticipate that the Citizens Alliance will submit written comments to support the stricter criteria of Measure Y to assure that road system capacity growth precedes the need for it. When our comments are ready they will be posted to www.edhca.net as a position paper accessible from the Active Issues web page.


Connector JPA starts up

Authority for planning and developing the El Dorado/Rancho Cordova/Elk Grove Connector has moved from SACOG to the new Connector Joint Powers Authority. The JPA's member jurisdictions are the City of Elk Grove, the City of Folsom, the City of Rancho Cordova, El Dorado County, and Sacramento County. A link to its new web site, www.connector.jpa.org, is in place on the EDHCA Links web page.

The Citizens Alliance views the future Connector as an asset to our road network, provided that design of its eastern terminus is engineered to reduce traffic congestion instead of increasing it in EDH. The most critical area is centered on the intersection of Latrobe Road and White Rock Road. SACOG's plan for the Connector routes all of its El Dorado traffic through this intersection, where part of the road network already is operating at or near its maximum capacity to handle Business Park traffic in peak periods. We offered brief comments at the May 25th JPA meeting to suggest two requirements for the Connector in the El Dorado Hills Area:

• Traffic originating or terminating in EDH should have alternate routes, not focusing all EDH traffic into the congestion-critical central area.
   
• County traffic originating or terminating east of EDH should bypass the surface streets of El Dorado Hills as it joins or leaves the Connector..

We suggested three design choices to support these goals:

• A major collector or arterial west of EDH, between the Connector and the future Empire Ranch Road interchange with US 50. Ideally it would run diagonally in a southwest/northeast direction. One of its two roles is to serve as a bypass for County traffic, connecting to the east on US 50. Its second purpose is to provide a bridge across US 50 at Empire Ranch Road.. This will carry traffic to and from the north side of EDH, with major collectors being the extended Saratoga Road and Sophia Parkway/Empire Ranch Road.
   
• Connection of the originally planned White Rock route to a new north/south arterial on the west side of the Business Park. This can handle much of the Business Park/Sacramento County.traffic load and the new arterial will become critically necessary as Business Park employment grows.
   
• Grade separation at the intersection of Latrobe and White Rock. We don't like this idea, but it could become necessary if County-to-Collector traffic is focused onto White Rock Road from the future Silva Valley Parkway interchange with US 50.

New housing growth rate

Late news from County government is a decision to make up for slow housing growth with layoffs instead of raising building fees. Most other jurisdictions in the Sacramento region have been raising building fees, often by more than 30%.

Growth rate early this year was very slow: Building permit statistics showed only about 35 new homes per month throughout El Dorado County from January through April. This changed in May, with 60 new single family homes plus two granny flats. 33 of the new homes are in El Dorado Hills, continuing the trend of about half of the County's housing growth occurring here. Only 3 builders accounted for 29 of those 33 homes. Reduced development fees are affecting capital improvement planning in many local agencies.

Housing growth rate was an issue in the debate about El Dorado Hills cityhood and is a real factor at many levels of local government, as was made clear by the County's layoff decision. Agencies that use development fees to fund capital improvement budgets include our CSD (park development), EID, our Fire Department, and the County Department Of Transportation (for road system development). County Building Services, Development Services, and Planning Services depend largely on fee revenues to fund their ongoing operations, not just capital improvements. Outside of government, businesses sometimes face similar questions:  Is it time to open the new storefront, or is it better to hold off until there's a bigger customer base?

In an ideal situation the need for growth in infrastructure is proportional to population, so that provision of services balances need for services. For now, many agencies will be reassessing timing and scope of their major projects.