City of
LEMOORE
CALIFORNIA
2/1/2022
City Council Meeting
Handouts received after
agenda posted
February 1, 2022
Lemoore City Council
429 C Street
Lemoore, CA 93245
To Lemoore City Council:
I am respectfully requesting that you not approve General Plan Amendment No. 2021-03 and Zoning Map Amendment No. 2021-05. I live in Crescent Court and when I purchased the home I was told by the City Clerk that no residences would be built behind my home. At that time a new off ramp to northbound Highway 41 was to be built. That was a very important factor when I decided to purchase my home. I have a swimming pool, and although I am not a loud person and do not have loud parties, when I do have friends, and their children, over it can get loud in my back yard and noise and voices carry, especially with a pool.
The plan for the off ramp has since changed and the landowner, Daley Homes, requested zoning changes five years ago so he could build on his property. I understood his request and felt, even though I was told no homes would be built, that he should be able to build on his property. He wanted to build apartments, like the ones he has built on Sonoma Ave. and Carmel Drive, behind the homes on the west side of Crescent Ct. and behind my house. One other resident and I spoke at the Planning Commission meeting five years ago regarding our concerns with this proposal. The Planning Commission agreed with our concerns, and my understanding is the City Council at that time agreed with the commission's recommendation, which was that Daley Homes could build the apartments behind the homes on the west side of Crescent Ct. but not behind the homes in the cul-de-sac itself.
Daley Homes has now come with a new request to build the apartments, once again, behind the homes in the cul-de-sac, but only on the south side of the new street. There would be single family homes built directly behind the homes in the cul-de-sac. This is an obvious back door attempt to get most of what he wanted, which was denied five years ago.
Once again I attended the Planning Commission meeting regarding this proposal. The main point from Daley Homes for the renewed request was that the depth of some of the lots were not conducive to single family homes. While that may be understandable, it does not outweigh the negative impacts that so many more residents in this area will have on the current residents/homeowners as well as the City. The addition of so many more apartments will lower our property value, which we certainly do not deserve. Also, the number of residents will be substantially increased versus single family homes. This would affect City infrastructure and services. For years California has been in a severe drought.
The City Council has made decisions in the past that have addressed water use in the city, such as non watering days. The addition of apartments in this area would greatly increase water use versus the addition of a lesser number of single family homes. These apartments would also increase sewage, garbage, and electricity consumption.
If you have ever driven down Sonoma Avenue and/or Carmel Drive, where Daley has already built these apartments, you have seen that street parking is already at a minimum. On garbage collection days, the residents have to put their garbage cans on the drivers side of vehicles because there are so many cars parked on the road that they cannot put them against the curbs. There is almost no street parking on Sonoma Avenue these days (photo attached), and there are not even apartments on the west side of the road, with the exception of the southwest corner of Sonoma Ave. and Silverado Drive.
Many of the new residents will likely travel north on S. 19 1/2 Ave. to W. Bush Street for school, work, or other reasons. There are no sidewalks on S. 19 1/2 Ave. from Silverado Dr. to W. Bush St., which is an obvious danger for pedestrians/bicyclists. During the morning commute, especially when school is in, traffic congestion at the intersection of S. 19 1/2 Ave. and W. Bush St. is already backed up and has been for years. Allowing more residents would only increase the current traffic congestion.
I believe what is best for the City and the residents in this area is to not allow Daley Homes to build apartments south of San Simeon Drive. I understand that is probably not an option at this point. The second best solution would be to stand by the Council's decision from five years ago, and the Planning Commission's recommendation then and now, and limit the apartments to the area behind the homes on the west side of Crescent Ct. and not behind the homes in the cul-de-sac. This would require that you deny General Plan Amendment No. 2021-03 and Zoning Map Amendment No. 2021-05 and I respectfully request that you do deny those amendments. As stated above, my request is based on my concern for the property value of those of us who live in the area as well as the negative impacts on the residents in the area and on City and state services resources. If you lived here, would you make a decision that would lower your property value? I regret that I could not address you in person but I have to work tonight. Thank you for your consideration.
Respectfully,
Steve Rossi
788 Crescent Ct.
1 From: Darren & Tammy Eskew
773 Crescent Ct.
Lemoore, CA 93245
To: Lemoore City Council
Subject- General plan amendment 2021-03 and zoning map amendment 2021-05 request by Daley Homes.
I would like to address the issue of apartments being built in the proposed area located at the North East corner of State Route 198 and State Route 41, South of San Simeon Drive and West of Arcata Avenue. The two issues myself and neighbors are concerned about are home values and traffic.
First – home values and the facts per “Realtor.com.” You can Google, “The Neighborhood Features That Drag Down Your Home Value.”
Bad schools – 22.2%
Strip club – 14.7%
High rental concentration – 13.8%
Homeless shelter – 12.7%
High renter concentration falls third worst, between strip clubs and homeless shelters. Apartments will bring down our home values.
Second – traffic and the facts based on the already built Daley apartments on the East side of Sonoma Avenue between Silverado and San Simeon Avenues. There are 32 apartment units on the East side of the street alone, resulting in an average of 35-45 vehicles parked on both sides of the street. On trash day, there are 35-45 vehicles and approximately 62 cans.( The count was taken over a 4 week average, the numbers are not made up.)
2 If the west side of Sonoma Avenue is developed with apartments, the result, based on the East side units, would be 70-90 vehicles and 124 cans. Sonoma Avenue is already full of vehicles at 45 and there is no way it could accommodate 70-90 vehicles, thus resulting in overflow parking and traffic into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Sonoma Avenue is also the main inlet to our neighborhood and when two cars are passing each other on that street, it becomes very crowded and unsafe.
Allowing Daley to build on the West side of Sonoma Avenue should be re-considered due to the amount of vehicles it would bring in and the lack of safe parking available.
Please no more apartments in our neighborhoods.
Fact – home values will go down with the addition of apartments.
Fact – traffic and parking already an issue will become considerably worse with the addition of more apartments.
Thank You for your time and service to the Lemoore community.
Darren & Tammy Eskew
1 I live on Crescent Court. We were told when moving here the undeveloped land to our West was zoned single family residential. Now Daley Homes wants to change that and add 30 to 50 apartments one street over from ours. I am opposed to this zoning change because it will impact by lowering the value of our homes. I would ask the city council members which of them would pay $350,000.00 or more for a home one street away from 50 apartments. That is what our home is valued at now.
In addition, this will bring increased traffic down Sonoma and Bodega Streets. Right now Sonoma Street is lined with cars on both sides, not allowing a lot of room for two cars to pass going opposite directions. When it is garbage removal day, there are also many cans that line Sonoma, since the homes along that street are duplexes. On those days there is only enough room for one lane traffic. Right now, Bodega is a quiet, residential street which would pick up a lot of additional traffic if apartments are allowed to be built. The fifty apartments alone could increase traffic flow to a potential of 100 cars or more that this area would see on a daily basis.
Sincerely,
Doug Moreland