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<br />reality, some of these developers will be looking for areas to build and there are not too many <br />left. She felt that means the Happy Valley community, which is supposed to be a semi-rural <br />area, would be in jeopardy. <br /> <br />Mr. Iserson responded that the 853 remaining unentitled units are under the existing <br />General Plan and represents the difference between the number of existing plus approved units <br />and the current General Plan build out. Staff is suggesting that since one of the issues to be <br />addressed with the General Plan update is whether a new policy should be instituted which <br />prohibits residential development on any slopes greater than 25%, and based on the initial <br />estimates of the impact on the southeast hills and the Foothill Road area, there would be 100- <br />150 units that would not be allowed to be built if that policy were enacted. Where those units <br />would be moved to is part of the decisions to be made in this General Plan Update. <br /> <br />Mr. Sullivan said where those units come from is strictly based on geography. That is a <br />different issue than what will occur in the southeast hills property. <br /> <br />Ms. McGovern said there is nothing that says the city has to build 29,000 units. The <br />State and ABAG are not telling the city has to build to its housing cap. <br /> <br />Mr. Iserson responded that the State and ABAG do not consider the housing cap <br />because that is a city decision. These agencies only look at numbers of units through their fair <br />share regional housing needs. The city has flexibility on what level it wants to build to under the <br />General Plan. <br /> <br />Lisa Regev, 2605 Lotus Street, said her home overlooks Lake I. She appreciated how <br />much the City has been focusing on making the chain of lakes a recreational area because it is <br />beautiful. She believed there is more crime in higher density areas than in single-family home <br />neighborhoods. She asked if that was factored in when considering whether to build high <br />density or low-density residential areas. She did not want high density in the area and <br />wondered about Option 3, since she felt it was friendlier to the existing neighborhood. She did <br />not want a large business like Home Depot and preferred to maintain the character of the city. <br /> <br />Sherry Dennis, 3768 Nichole Avenue, noted prior comments about traffic and referred to <br />the first Ponderosa project when traffic was the main issue. At that time, it was explained that <br />the left turn lanes from Santa Rita onto Valley and also plans to get traffic off Valley onto <br />Stanley were limited in how much more they could handle because of the existing physical <br />constraints. Whatever development is planned for the area must use what roads already exist. <br />She believed part of the concern about the red light runners is that it takes three changes of the <br />signal before a left turn can be made and she felt that contributed to the frustration, which <br />caused the drives to run the lights. Whatever use is approved for this area will impact the traffic. <br />There were also plans to expand the water park opposite this area, which will also generate <br />more traffic. She noted the School District did not plan to put a regular school on the Ponderosa <br />site, but instead were considering some type of extension of a high school curriculum. She <br />worked on a subcommittee for housing in the 1996 General Plan review and near the end of the <br />process, the Hanson property came up in discussion and they were told it would be very <br />expensive to recompact the land in order to build houses on it. The committee was told it would <br />not be a good site for residential development. The recommendation was not to rezone <br />anything in that area until EI Charro Road was completed. <br /> <br />Joint Workshop <br />City Council/Planning Commission <br /> <br />10 <br /> <br />01/24/06 <br />