SOUNDING OFF:Huge hillside projects must stop

We just wanted to give you a progress report on the Ceanothus development which your board permitted to invade our neighborhood.

During the hearings one and a half year ago — give or take a few months — you ignored most of our concerns. You swept aside our pleas to take into account how seriously the excavation for this four-house monster development by outside speculators would disrupt our neighborhood and the surrounding environment.

You didn’t seem to care that no core samples were provided, despite the fact that the actual quantity of rock to be removed with the developers’ crude methods was deliberately concealed in the inadequate grading plans you glossed over.

You also thought it unimportant that the area encroaches on designated open space, watercourses and sensitive habitat. Our arguments that the sheer mass and scale of the project, and the excavation required to accomplish it, were out of proportion to our neighborhood, did not appear to hold any weight with you.

We argued that ownership of buildable lots did not entitle these developers to run roughshod over our entire neighborhood.

We argued that these homes were insanely oversized for the little hill they would cover — and what about the 20,000 yards of excavation material? As you can see they have decimated that once lovely little hillside they have been burrowing into so deeply in order to maximize their profits with the biggest home.

We said NO. No one is entitled to inflict this kind of nightmare on a community. But you approved it despite our pleas. Foolishly, we failed to appeal your rubber-stamp approval to the City Council where we would have had a fair hearing.

At the time, you, the board members, claimed you were hamstrung by the guidelines. “Nothing we can do about it.”

What a pity that you didn’t have the vision to exercise some leadership and think out of the box when faced with a monstrosity like this.

You didn’t seem to recognize that existing development rules did not adequately address the environmental and quality of life issues raised by the sheer mass and scale that this speculative development represented.

Well, we’ve been living with the result of that decision since July of this year and have what you see here — a rock quarry, a rape of the environment, and a quiet neighborhood thrown into turmoil for the duration.

We and our neighbors, and neighbors across the canyon, have endured five months of rock breaking — daily pounding by machines designed for use on huge commercial projects — and it’s estimated that this will continue for another month to three months.

Add the nearly 1,500 dump truck trips so far with hundreds more to come down our narrow steep streets and you see how your approval was nothing but a recipe for disaster.

On Dec. 14, another resort style project is scheduled to go before the present Design Review Board. It will be architect Kirk Saunders’ second attempt to get a huge project approved for his client -- again in our Ceanothus neighborhood.

The first attempt, while okayed by the Design Review Board, was quashed by the city manager just prior to being taken up on appeal by the city council.

From our perspective, this second project is not much different that the first. Even without the expansion bridge it is still adjacent to a trail folks have traversed for more than 20 years, a couple of watercourses and very highly sensitive habitat.

Let’s hope that this current Design Review Board can learn from its predecessor’s past mistakes.

It is time to stop the madness.