Urban Design gets first public hearing
Public condemns long-awaited plan
By John Waters Jr.
Editor
After years of delay and nearly total opposition by a wary public, sweeping changes proposed by the City of Calistoga’s draft Urban Design Plan squeaked forward during a marathon meeting of the Calistoga Planning Commission June 24.
The standing-room-only meeting was the first-ever official review by a legislative bodyof the UDP. No fewer than 18 people spoke during the public comment period. Of those, 16 spoke of numerous concerns and generally seemed to oppose the draft plan, while only two expressed unwavering support of the recommendations in the UDP.
In the end, a four-member Planning Commission — Commissioner Clayton Creager was absent — developed a consensus on four items.
Summarily, the group voted 3-1 against throwing the document out completely after several public speakers questioned the legality of the document, citing that for two years the plan’s development committee had met in violation of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.
City Manager Jim McCann told the commission no additional meetings of that City Council subcommittee were held once the city learned they were operating illegally. However, lacking input by the city attorney, McCann explained the groundwork created by those illegal meetings was still valid and remains the basis of the draft UDP.
Commissioner Paul Coates cast the single vote in favor of scrapping the UDP in its current form.
Beyond that, the commission decided to strike the suggestion of a “north crossing,” or a road that would bisect the area from Grant Street to the Riverlea subdivision, in lieu of revisiting the issue during some future general plan development council.
Additionally, a priority project extending Washington Street through to Dunaweal Lane was also removed, pending some future decision that the road was actually needed. Potentially enormous costs to actually build the road and whether it would require the taking of some agriculture land were cited as reasons.
Some of the most contentious issues of the night surrounded a fistful of land use recommendations, perceived by Indian Springs owner John Merchant as demands that would cost him millions in concessions to the city before he could begin to develop about 60 acres he owns at the heart of town — a section commonly known as the Gliderport.
The property, which is recommended for local-serving developments such as a civic center, parking structure and more, is zoned by Calistoga’s General Plan as an airport.
Commissioner Nick Kite suggested Merchant rewrite the parts of the UDP he found offensive and return to the commission with a plan for his property that he felt was less coercive.
The commission continued the discussion of the UDP to the July 22 meeting, “assuming the discussion between the city and Merchant had taken place.”
Commissioners Kite and Coates volunteered to serve on a subcommittee, along with city staff and two members of the Calistoga City Council, to hammer out a compromise with Merchant.
“This is great,” Merchant said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for 10 years.”
Many issues remain for the commission and the public to address, including the plan’s legality, its funding, and whether or not it supersedes the General Plan.
Questions also remain over which neighborhoods are slated for rezoning to a higher density and how to make the UDP more environmentally sound in the face of certain greenhouse gas-reducing measures mandated by the state.