Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Zoning Ordinance Planning Commission Meeting 2/21/06

GOLF COURSE REZONING

Excellent insight and comments on San Ramon Golf Course Rezoning Issue by a San Ramon Reader, re-published in this new posting.

As a resident of San Ramon, I sat through the planning commission meeting last night.

Two things became apparent on the Golf Courses Rezoning Issue: (1) the planning staff options 1 (to change the General Plan) and 4 (to build an Overlay in the Ordinances) were the only two options that were seriously considered; and, (2) there was a major split between Residents who were nearly unanimously in favor of Option 1 and the Commissioners who , until the very end, were likewise unanimously in favor of Option 4.

An important exception occurred at the end of the meeting after both Commissioners and Residents had made their comments, including input from the Planning Staff. Commission Chair, DiGeronimo, stated that he could support a General Plan amendment (a modified Option 1) that would make a Special Purpose Zone for Golf Courses with an FAR of 0.1, that is, if the City Council so instructed the Commission to do so.

This looks like a viable solution to this observer. It seems to solve many of the issues facing the Planners and Residents. The residents would get "maximum protection" for their golf courses and the City would resolve the GP and Golf Courses Zoning inconsistency that, we are told, has existed since 1995. It also would help settle some convoluted linkage issues facing the city, like park-acreage vs resident ratios for new developments. Linkages are not easily understood by Residents; thus, they worry us. We know that we are ignorant on these matters, but they are being brought up by the Commissioners and Planning staff as to why one option facing the City is better than another. Many of us don't feel that we have had time even to begin to understand these linkages, nor to discover who the linkage players are. We are time-limited in understanding these linkages, especially since we were not given fair notice of these rezonings.

Thus, in this resident's mind, the Chair's suggestion to give us an even better Option 1 would be the best and quickest way out of this dilemma between our representatives and ourselves. We appreciate that it would require extra effort on the City's part, but it's in the best interest of the City, in our opinion, to resolve this issue ASAP.

San Ramon eMail contact srcommunity@gmail.com

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