APPROVAL PROCESS
PLANNING COMMISSION: Sycamore Village was heard by the Sacramento County Policy Planning Commission on February 26, 2008. More than 100 people, including 30 speakers, showed up to support our project. There were approximately 20 people from the opposition, including 15 speakers. The neighbors spoke against the requested rezone from 4 homes to 10 homes per acre. The Commission voted to rehear the project in 120 days. This gives us time to make design changes. We expect the new hearing to be scheduled in summer 2008. For more details, see the Sacramento Bee article of March 6, 2008.
DESIGN REVIEW: Sacramento County has initiated a Design Review Process to encourage high-quality planning. The Community Design Guidelines favor projects that:
● Create a sense of place
● Make things better for pedestrians
● Are transit-supportive
Sycamore Village was reviewed by the five-member Design Review Advisory Committee on December 13, 2007. No changes were suggested, and the project was enthusiastically endorsed. The DRAC commented that the project has a nice driveway, large usable open space, and meets the interim multi-family design guidelines regarding the height and small scale of buildings.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT: The Draft Environmental Impact Report was released on November 26, 2007. The report is online at www.dera.saccounty.net. Search on "Sycamore Village." The Draft EIR said there were no significant impacts except for the oak trees. This was not a surprise, since there are so many oak trees on the property. It also said traffic was not a significant impact, which was good news for us.
ORANGEVALE CPAC: On January 2, 2007, our project was heard before the Orangevale Community Planning Advisory Council (CPAC). The neighbors expressed concerns about traffic and property values. As a result of the opposition, the CPAC voted 4 to 2 against our project. For more details, see the Sacramento Bee article of January 8, 2007.
We redesigned the parking area to address the neighbors' concerns about noise, lights, and visual intrusion. Based on our research about traffic and property values, we are convinced that Orangevale Cohousing will not increase traffic significantly, and that it will actually increase surrounding property values. (see the Why Cohousing page).
APPLICATION SUBMITTAL: We submitted our application to the Sacramento County Planning Department in October 2006.
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