Fw: Zombie Hotel

[cleu...@yahoo.com]

Dear friends and neighbors ,
This is forwarded from our Mac rep about the serious threat to our public safety and access to evacuation routes in the event of a fast moving fire . It's Really critical to stop this before there is a terrible , preventable tragedy and loss of life. Even a very short response AGAINST this project sent to the commissioner in charge of this would be added to the numbers against it, and potentially save countless lives .
Peace, Christmas

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: CYNTHIA STRECKER <cystr...@yahoo.com>

To: Christmas Leubrie <cleu...@yahoo.com>

Sent: Saturday, March 4, 2023, 03:34:56 PM PST

Subject: Fwd: Zombie Hotel

Christmas,  Here’s the letter that I sent recently.  Feel free to use any of it that you want to.  We have until the 23rd but it’s best to get it in a week or two before that or the commissioners won’t have time to read it.

Thank you!

Cynthia

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: CYNTHIA STRECKER <cystr...@yahoo.com>
Date: February 9, 2023 at 9:41:55 PM PST
To: Cynthia Strecker <cstrecker...@gmail.com>
Subject: Zombie Hotel

Well, it’s back again…a bit sooner than I had thought but…I know I keep asking but 1 more letter could make a BIG difference.  Letters are due by March 6th 5PM.  Send them to:

Georgia....@sonoma-county.org
Re:  PLP 18-0012

This IS/MND (Mitigated Negative Declaration) is very much the same as the one the developer (Lok) was going to use in November before he requested a postponement.  Here are some ideas you might use in your letter.

Talking Points:

1). Traffic study.  It’s old.  It was done in 2018.  The parking study was up-dated but not the traffic study.  The Sonoma County Guidelines for Traffic Impact Studies states on page 2, “For projects that have languished and/or are being resubmitted, all previous traffic studies relating to the development that are more than two (2) years old will have to be updated.”  That hasn’t been done.

2). Parking:  The graphic for the parking plan is not terribly clear.  The county’s stated requirement for a project like this is 225 parking spaces.  The Lodge says it has 175 including the 25 set aside for public parking from sunrise to sunset.  There are fewer than 20 spaces that are not either “stacked” or valet parking.  Even the valet parking seems to actually be “stacked” as most spaces would require the movement of at least 2 cars to get access to the original one.  This would be an obvious madhouse in the event of a forest fire.

3) Evacuation due to a forest fire:  As mentioned the Traffic Study is inadequate.  It doesn’t even mention the effect of this project on the main arteries located directly across the road and a few yards from it, Old Cazadero Rd., Old Monte Rio Rd., and Lovers Lane.  Fully 21 dead-end roads feed into these roads and have their only access to Highway 116 and safety at the same point as the proposed hotel.  This means that hundreds and hundreds of cars will be attempting to enter Hwy. 116 at exactly the same spot as the hotel guests (and employees).

At the BZA hearing last February one of the Commissioners stated that he didn’t really think that Kirk Lok should be responsible for public safety.  I think he’s right.  It’s not Lok’s job.  It’s the Planning Commissioners’ job to make sure that new development doesn’t compromise public safety.

4). CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife:  This Dept submitted 13 pages worth of things that hadn’t been done and needed to be done.  This starts with a survey of whether or not there is habitat on the promises for several types of endangered animals and plants.  If the habitat is found then a whole series of processes are put into place to measure and safeguard these species.  The developer is trying to get a use permit before the area is surveyed for habitat.  Construction and usage could severely compromise the habitat in q1uestion.  He is proposing mitigation of any damage to the riparian corridor and site.  

There are three types of mitigation that can be done here…Creation (of a new habitat where there wasn’t one before), Restoration and Enhancement.  The developer is proposing Enhancement.  He will pull out all the invasive species and replace them with native plants.  This will then be monitored for a couple of years.  The problem with this is that invasive plants will return.  That’s what invasive means.  So after the 3 or 5 year period of monitoring, then what.  

Enhancement is the lowest level of mitigation.  In this case it’s very unlikely to work for long.

So this project is poorly conceived.  It already violates several of our county’s and state’s regulations.  It also violates the previous direction of the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) which told the developers not to exceed their previous footprint.  Instead this iteration adds over 5,000 square ft to the project.  What don’t these people understand?

Personally, I’d like to see a public park on that piece of ground.  A small beach, a picnic area, a playground area, off-street parking, what’s not to love?  After all, Guerneville, the capital of the lower river, doesn’t have a public beach.  Seems to me that that would be a better way to use that piece of property.

Thanks for all you do and have done,
Cynthia

P.S.  Remember — you don’t have to go on forever like me.  It’s the number of people they hear from that counts.  Short and sweet is GOOD!

Sent from my iPad

[Chuck Ramsey]

It looks like this hotel will finally pass and construction hopefully will start soon. There is a lot of support in the community for it, although there are also NIMBYs. The River is in the shape it's in due to a lack of leadership. Monte Rio and Guerneville need leadership. Leadership that builds community instead of enabling further decline. RV's, meth, garbage, criminal activity, sewage issues, road issues, the list goes on and on. But some spend their time worried about a hotel. There clearly are more important serious threats to our public safety and access to evacuation routes. 

As for wanting a public park and beach there this is privately owned land. What's not to love? Traffic for one. Have you seen Mirabel/Forestville beach/river traffic in the summer? And Guerneville does have a river park. It's across the old bridge from the Plaza. Lovely place with the usual criminal activity, drugs, crime, etc. We don't need another one. The county also has other recent purchases to clean up and deal with such as the old BofA building and George's Hideaway. The last thing we need is the county to buy Lok's property. 

We also have issues at the parking lot of our community center with criminals stealing gasoline. Moscow Rd is a mess with homeless, meth, criminal activity and crime. Let's hope we can concentrate on areas closer to home that need our serious attention. 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Monte Rio Community Garden" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to monte-rio-community...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/monte-rio-community-garden/1938911887.2805604.1678129652678%40mail.yahoo.com.