| This page was last modified on Saturday, August 13, 2011 08:52 PM Tract Home Hearing News On July 11, 2011 the developer of the tract homes appealed the Regional Planning Commissioners’ denial of VTTM 066952 and Conditional Use Permit 200700038. You can read the finding of the LA County Commission by following this link:
On June 29, 2011, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commissioners, in a 3 to 2 vote denied the Tract Home Development known as Valley Vineyards. 35 Leona Valley Residents attended the Meeting. The Developer has filed an appeal to the LA County Board of Supervisors. View Leona Valley Presentation Watch the recorded meeting.
COMMUNITY AGAIN VOICES ITS OPPOSITION TO THE VALLEY VINEYARDS SUBDIVISION PROJECT
Valley Vineyards first proposed a gated community subdivision in Leona Valley in 2006. In 2007, a presentation of the project concept by the developer was made to a packed audience of Leona Valley residents. After the presentation, there was overwhelming voiced opposition by the community. Four years passed with few, if any, changes to the proposal. Another presentation was made to the community residents in 2011. Approximately 10% of the Leona Valley residents attended. Many questions and concerns were raised. The meeting concluded with another overwhelming negative response to the subdivision as proposed.
The Leona Valley Town Council, according to its charter (see below) has provided several forums for these issues to gather community input. The Town Council continues to present the residents' concerns to appropriate agencies and to aid local citizens in communicating their wishes to the same agencies.
ARTICLE 3. PURPOSE
The purpose of the Leona Valley Town Council shall be to engage in such activities as may promote the common good of the community of Leona Valley and provide for the preservation of the community's values, lifestyles, and rural environment. The Leona Valley Town Council shall provide a frequent forum and/or other means of gathering community views, wishes and concerns on issues to be brought before the Leona Valley Town Council; to present community concerns to appropriate agencies; and to review public or private proposals that may affect the community. The Leona Valley Town council shall be apolitical, neither supporting nor opposing any political party or candidate.
ARTICLE 4. ORGANIZATION OF THE LEONA VALLEY TOWN COUNCIL
SECTION 1. Duties and Responsibilities: The duties and responsibi1ities of the Leona Valley Town Council shall include the following:
A. The Leona Valley Town Council shall at all times:
1. Strive to accurately mirror in its policies and actions the positions and concerns of the Leona Valley community.
2. Function as a voluntary organization of elected members who receive no remuneration.
3. Encourage the flow of information among individuals and community organizations who are working for the betterment of Leona Valley.
B. Represent the Leona Valley Town Council and the community with equal authority and position.
VALLEY VINEYARDS TRACT HOME PROJECT WE NEED MORE LETTERS!!! Click Here for Sample Letters Opposing the Valley Vineyards Project The County has posted your letters on their Web Page. http://planning.lacounty.gov/case/view/project_no._tr066952-5/
Proposed Tour Valley Vineyards Proposed Tract Map Site On April 5, the lobbyist for Valley Vineyards, Aaron Green, contacted LVIA with an invitation to tour the project site on Monday, April 11. Many people were interested in attending. The Town Council attempted to help facilitate the tour. We were notified by the lobbyist that the developer, Bill Ford, was not able to attend. The tour has been cancelled. If the tour is rescheduled we will notify you here. As of July 1, there is no further information.
Data on the Tract Home Development Tract Homes Development Help control development in Leona Valley by sending letters to the County and the Supervisor. It is important to get your inputs into the Vested Tentative Tract Map TR066952 file as soon as possible. Department of Regional Planning Jodie Sackett, Project number TR066952 320 West Temple Street, 13th Floor
Los Angeles, California, 90012. Michael D. Antonovich Supervisor 5th District Downtown Office
500 West Temple Street, Room 869
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 974-5555
(213) 974-1010 FAX
Stay Informed About the Tract Home Development To stay informed on the Tract Homes Development E-mail to Tract.Homes@leonavalleytowncouncil.org. To officially be on the list we need your name and address sent to Tract.Homes@leonavalleytowncouncil.org, Once verified you will be added to the list. You can send e-mails to the Development Committee by using the contact box below without signing up to be on the distribution list. Note: If you previously signed up at Tract.Homes@leonavalleytowncouncil.org. please sign up again as the e-mail was not activated properly and was not working.
Down Load the presidents letter for the Cherry Chapter here: THE PRESIDENTS PLEA Final.doc You can download a copy of the proposed tract documents here: ttp://planning.lacounty.gov/assets/upl/case/project_tr066952_library-package.pdf
Information on the Tract Home Development - Valley Vineyards (TR066952)
For more information on the Regional Planning process, go to this website: http://planning.lacounty.gov/assets/upl/agenda/pdm_20110113-handout3.pdf
The Town Council needs to hear from all those residents who would like to be involved. One of the changes affecting all residents of Leona Valley, visitors, and commuters, will be a traffic signal at the intersection of Bouquet Canyon Road and Elizabeth Lake Road. Check back here on a regular basis for more information. You can contact Bill Elliott, Peggy Fuller, Rich Thomas, or Alice Wolman (contact information is available on this website under "Contact us") to find out how you can help.
The Valley Vineyards has submitted a Draft Initial Study documentation for proposed tract homes called Valley Vineyards. Click on documents below for more details:
Information pertaining to the status of the development as indicated by Jodie Sackett, Land Divisions Section, County of Los Angeles Department of Regional Planning: OPEN SPACE: The current position of the County Planning Department is that clustering projects provide separate dedicated open space lots, and that dedicated open space within hillside management projects cannot be used for commercial (vineyard) purposes. The project discussion to open space dedication and wine vineyards neglects the other more important concerns of the project. DENSITY: The development’s density (32 units above the midpoint density threshold, which is one-quarter of the entire project), lack of a satisfactory clustering design (development proposed throughout the entire project area, and less than half of the proposed lots actually reduced in size), excessive quantity of proposed grading (now 4.4 million cubic yards of total combined cut and fill; very different from the 500,000 cubic yards indicated on the subdivision application you signed on February 12, 2007). There is an over-disturbance and/or elimination of slopes exceeding 50 percent (Lot Nos. 5, 6, 7, 16, 18, 19 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 56, 70, 71, 72, 75, 76, 83, 95, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 116 (36 lots total, or nearly one-third of the entire project). ERROR BY DEVELOPER: The issue of the project’s density is critical, as it seems that in your initial slope density analysis dated December 5, 2006, there was a significant error in calculation (the incorrect low density threshold of “1 dwelling unit per 2 acres” was used instead of the actual “1 dwelling unit per 5 acres” required within the 0-25 percent slope range). This caused Valley Vineyard to arrive at “80 dwelling units” for the low density threshold amount instead of “40 dwelling units” -- an error of precisely 100 percent. COUNTY RECOMMENDATIONS & CHANGES: Since the initial filing of your project on February 13, 2007, staff has made several efforts to formally communicate the key project issues to the Developer. To date, the proposed project remains virtually unchanged and none of staff’s recommendations that pertain directly to the size, scale, intensity and impacts of this project have been considered.
Valley Vineyards Subdivision Regional Planning Documentation There are a few documents too big to post to this Web site right now, contact the Town Council or Valley Vineyards for a copy.
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