Driftwood opponents shift gears

Barbara Diamond

The Driftwood development made a pit stop Tuesday at the City Council

Chamber after three years on the local bureaucratic byways and will

travel now to the California Coastal Commission.

“It’s been a long road and we have a long road ahead of us,” said

Penny Elia, chair of the Sierra Club’s Save Hobo Ridge Task Force.

The council voted 4-1 at a special meeting to approve an 11-lot

project overlooking an adjacent South Laguna neighborhood unified in

its opposition to the development as proposed.

Neighbors of the project consider the council decision a detour,

not a dead end.

“This now goes to the Coastal Commission, which is a different

playing field -- a better one,” Elia said.

The Driftwood Estates project is proposed for an area that was

“white-holed” -- withheld from the city’s application for

certification of its local coastal plan. Highpointe Communities, the

development company of record, must apply to the commission for its

coastal development permit.

The council on Tuesday adopted four resolutions to move the

project along: certification of the final environmental impact

report, including findings and a mitigation monitoring program;

approval of a general plan/local coastal plan amendment to delete a

watercourse from the general plan maps and a request that the coastal

commission consider the amendment; and conditional approval of a

tentative tract map for the subdivision, with added conditions that

will come back to the council for final review at the Oct. 21

meeting.

Councilman Wayne Baglin’s motion to approve the tentative tract

map added conditions of side and backyard setbacks of 30 feet or 20

feet from the top of slope; building site coverage (footprint) not to

exceed 6,300 square feet, even on a 60,000 square-foot lot -- but

second stories are permissible, subject to design review under the

city’s recently adopted “mansionization” restrictions; and a

trailhead to be no closer than 30 feet to the watercourse legislated

off city maps.

Deed restrictions were placed on the open space dedication and the

individual lots to prevent any further sub-division.

Project architect Morris Skenderian pointed out that less than 3%

of the more than 225-acre Driftwood Estates parcel will be developed.

The rest will be dedicated as open in perpetuity to the city.

Skenderian said benefits of the project include flood protection

for homes below the development; extension of Driftwood Drive and

construction of a turn-around so trucks will no longer have to back

down the street; a revised fuel modification plan accepted by the

city’s fire department; and a density of only one home per acre,

compared to four home per acre in adjoining neighborhoods.

The proposal on which they deliberated was the result of seven

months of negotiations subsequent to the Planning Commission’s

recommended approval in January of a 15-lot development on a

continuous street that looped off of Driftwood Drive and deletion of

a mapped watercourse as no longer functional.

It had taken the commission more than two years and 10 public

meetings to arrive at its decision, which met with fierce

neighborhood opposition, despite the developer’s voluntary deletion

of two more home sites before the proposal reached the council.

“The application presented in February was not one I could support

as compatible with the neighborhood,” said Councilman Steven

Dicterow.

He took it upon himself, with council approval, to facilitate

negotiations between the developer and neighborhood representatives.

Perhaps the most effect of the final decision will be felt in the

Driftwood/Marilyn Drive neighborhood, described by Baglin as

delightful, beautifully maintained and endangered. He said property

values will be increased by the Driftwood development, but that might

encourage big remodels or tear downs.

“What will happen then to our sense of neighborhood community?”

asked Driftwood Drive resident Jeanne Bernstein.

“I guess if you have enough money you can buy a mountain and build

castles on it,” said Bernstein. “But I don’t want to wake up one

morning and realize I am living on the wrong side of the tracks.”

Developer Steve Vliss and neighborhood spokeswoman Elia did reach

agreement on some construction mitigation that she asked to have

included in the council’s resolutions.

That’s about all they agreed on. The developer’s reduction in the

number of homes and other concessions cited by architect Skenderian

did not lessen opposition to the project.

Elia was among the 15 residents who spoke against the developer’s

proposal Tuesday and supported a five-lot project and watercourse

restoration presented to the council by Driftwood Drive resident Ed

Almanza. That proposal will be submitted to the Coastal Commission,

along with the council-approved project, which includes the gift from

property-owner Vliss to the city of 217 acres of open space. “You

don’ t need to approve 11 lots to get the open space,” said project

critic Steve Gromet.

Gromet said the reduction of lots from the original proposal for

19 down to 11 was irrelevant. And so were the number of meetings held

on the project.

“All this argument is just fluff,” he told the council. “You are

charged with responsibility to encourage compatibility and you must

take neighborhood comments into consideration.”

Skenderian said the developer doesn’t have to dedicate anything if

he doesn’t get approval of a development he believes is appropriate.

The open space gift drew support for the development from

residents above the proposed Driftwood Estates, fearful of a

Barracuda Way property owner’s notion to swap some of his land for

some of the open space.

“That has about as much chance of happening as a dead man

walking,” said Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman.

Kinsman and Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson would have approved the

13-lot proposal presented in February.

“For one thing, there was no export of dirt,” Kinsman said, “but

we didn’t have a third vote.”

The revised project will produce almost 27,000 cubic yards of dirt

to be hauled, so building pads could be lowered to heights pads more

closely related to existing homes.