From: Chuck Hoffman
To: Mary Gourley
Subject: Destroying our Town
Date: Monday, May 02, 2022 6:46:04 PM
Woodmark: Heads up Sebastopol!
I am writing to provide a WARNING to the people of Sebastopol regarding the “Woodmark Apartments” proposal - to construct an 84 unit community on Bodega Ave, just off Nelson - east of Pleasant Hill. It is clear to me that the Sebastopol Planning Committee and the Council haven’t been anywhere as communicative with our community about this imminent threat as they should have been.
That’s right: approval Is sought for this enormous project (consisting of 84 (!!) primarily 2 and 3 bedroom units), by an out of state building conglomerate known for this type of ruinous, ill-conceived, infringement on communities (particularly in California), angling to begin construction on a significantly undersized (for this size community) lot. Smack dab in the middle of one of the most critically important, most problematically congested,(2 lane) thoroughfares in all of Sebastopol: Bodega Ave, just east of Pleasant Hill Road. “Gasp”! Right?? If you know the location of this lot, just south of Nelson, off Bodega,there is no doubt you’re thinking “this has GOT to be wrong! No one would ever consider such a huge development in THAT space! How are people going to get in and (importantly) Out of town??Especially, say, in an emergency - like when there’s a fire!??” And. Isn’t this a two lane road?? Isn’t it almost always jammed up with traffic?And, lately, it’s even worse than ever? And don’t folks cut through the community, right there, to get cross-town without having to wait the impossible wait on Bodega?? For example, Wilton, Huntley, Florence, Washington are, already heavily utilized in this way.There aren’t many sidewalks for all of the neighbors “pedestering pleasantly” along these country streets now. Where will they go? What will keep these folks safe with the massive increase in traffic that will come with this huge project, on the tiny lot therein?Oh, Did I mention that a goodly number of these aforementioned rambling folks are seniors? Did I forget to point out that The Parkside complex of elementary schools, with all those many many young children and their parents is right there, on Dutton, Washington? Did I mention the 150 or more cars than now that will be coming and going through this impossible nightmare, incomprehensibly, planned for this central, already totally clogged, location. That there will not be sufficient parking in the development? Just picture 100s of cars parked on Bodega Avenue.
These are just some of the concerns the citizens of the town will be burdened with… they’re already being called elitist - or worse - because they think THIS LOT is just the wrong location for this massive development.
I can’t go into all of it that’s rumbling right at us. Find out about the rest. Please. I think you’ll be full on flabbergasted.The 17 foot high retaining wall all around this proposed community and the many old growth trees that are going have to die and the huge earth moving project (thousands of truck loads of dirt going up and down Bodega) needed to fully flatten out this aforementioned tiny lot so the three or four years of building may then begin.Right there. On Bodega Ave. Really. I know there are so many other, perfectly reasonable, places in Sebastopol where
a community this large would actually fit
comfortably. But…
The City Council and Planning groups have long ago full on capitulated, giving it all away without our knowing, citing State Laws they consider inviolable (“There’s not much we can do to stop them - the state dictates that they can do whatever they want.”), not sharing the particulars of this debacle with the people of Sebastopol.If more of uswho live here were fully appraised of what’s bearing down on us, folks would be inclined to speak up, loudly!, for sure. But then the City might well lose some major bucks the Council might use for, say, covering up a budget deficit or two here in town. Whether there’s enough water for the neighborhood once this little city is up n going??
Check it all out for yourself. Let your neighbors know! You deserve to be fully informed about what’s coming to our (once?) quaint little town - tooling down our over-burdened roads, through our neighborhoods, at us on our main thoroughfare, two lane Bodega Avenue.A caravan of cars; no where else to put folks other than a tiny lot on Bodega Ave.
Stop Woodmark! Save our Town.
It is already quite difficult to manage driving or walking safely in the areas proximal to the Bodega site, and “dumping” this project on street like Washington, Murphy, Florence, Huntley, Valentine would be well nighimpossible to handle for such a small area. infraction perpetrated by the Pacific West Company without due or, more importantly, necessary legal obligation to inform the community of the dangerous, unsafe, imposition this development would obviously impose on all of us. IF there is any idea to actually move forward with this awful idea the community must be much more fully involved and complete environmental impact studies conducted.
I expected that our representatives of the City of Sebastopol would act in the best interests of our community. We can, quite simply, not afford any further traffic on Bodega Avenue or the immediately surrounding neighborhoods that would bear the brunt of this untenable, dangerous, burden (. This development would be a debacle for all of us who live here. It would add a level of congestion and concomitant traffic on the streets that are already serving as overwhelmed “pass-through” for traffic avoiding the dangerous overcrowding that is evident on Bodega Avenue. Enough!
Our community is overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of Woodmark Apartments” by the carpet bagging Pacific West Company. The financial rewards that are incentivizing this illegal encroachment on our well being and safety are obvious. The City has failed, to now, to fully inform the citizenry of the dangers here - and the huge financial rewards for the outsiders at the base of how this out-of-area construction company operates - here, with us as their next target.
Join me and our neighbors to Stop this horrific, destructive, project and the clear threat it represents for our community! There are alternative sites, amenable for a substantially scaled down plan, that might well accommodate the purported intention of this development. The Bodega Ave site is not it.
Sent from my iPad