Article: The Inconvenient Truths Surrounding the CVS Vote

[Peacetown Jonathan]

By Jonathan Greenberg
WaccoBB.net
August 6, 2012

Like the global warming crisis, the deeper one looks into Armstrong Development's CVS/Chase project, the worse the situation seems to get.

Should the City Council vote to negate the findings of Sebastopol's duly authorized Design Review Board and approve the enormously unpopular CVS-Chase development, a little known, undebated consequence will be that the city will be legally obligated to ban left turns onto Bodega Avenue from High Street. This means that anyone driving from the City's most important public locations: our library, our City Hall,and out downtown shop parking lot, will be unable to drive the way they have for decades.

A few weeks ago, an article published by WaccoBB.net examined the questionable language used in Sebastopol Panning Director Kenyon Webster's July 16 Agenda Report (Is Sebastopol's Planning Director Rigging the CVS Process.")

Mr. Webster seemed to insist that our City Council approve the developer's appeal to bypass the decision made by our duly appointed Design Review Board, based upon a number of highly questionable assessments he made about the enormously unpopular project.

In a recent email response to this reporter's WaccoBB article that the City's Planning Director had improperly worded his Aganeda Report of July 16, , City Attorney and Acting City Manager Larry Mclaughlin said, "the Planning Director's recommendations, as well as my own, or any other Dept. Head's recommendations, are just that - a recommendation, which the Council fully understands they are free to accept, or reject, or accept in part. The Council expects its staff to do a full professional analysis and to make a recommendation, but the Council always makes the final decision on any matter before it."

Yet to vote in favor of the CVS development, a City Council member will be voting to agree WITH EVERY ONE of the following questionable, and troubling conclusions:

1) That the project, which lacks a single door into the street it faces, and whose doors open into a large suburban parking lot with a drive through window, conforms to the spirit of Sebastopol's General Plan, which requires a "Small Town" design in our downtown area.

2) That this design is consistent with "early 20th Century" design.

3) That the city's duly authorized, highly professional Design Review Board's 4 to 1 vote to turn down the project's design should be overturned, in a historically unprecedented move, because the Board exceeded its review authority by disagreeing with the project's design.

4) That Armstrong Developer's false representation to the City Council, that it had reduced the height of the building, was inconsequential, and that, in fact, Armstrong will not need to reduce the height of the building.

5) That an existing traffic pattern that is critical to the functioning of downtown Sebastopol--left turns from High Street, will become illegal in the future.

The High Street turn is the newest revelation flowing from the suspicious traffic report and its "Mitigated Negative Declaration." Against all logic, the report concluded that in adding 2,000 car trips a day to the largest, and most dangerous traffic choke point in the region, there will be an insignificant impact on traffic. A few weeks ago, this reporter, in WaccoBB, reported that the traffic report was critically flawed because, at the instruction of Planning Director Kenyon webster, it omitted any measurement of traffic from Bodega Avenue's busiest area, west of High Street to Jewell Avenue.

A new insight from a legal assessment of the traffic report is that the "mitigation" part of this declaration is predicated upon the following condition:

"Prohibiting the northbound and southbound turns at the intersection (Bodega Avenue and High Street will have minimum effects on residents, as other nearby roadways such as Willow Street, Edman Avenue and Wilton Street can be used...With the proposed mitigation measure, the traffic would continue to operate at unacceptable LOS in the peak hour. However, the delay increase would be below the 5.0 second threshold. Therefore, with the implementation of the proposed mitigation the impact is supposed to be less that significant."

No mention is made in the traffic report that the north heading left turn from High Street is necessary for any residents heading east toward Santa Rosa or Petaluma Avenue or Main Street from Sebastopol's library, downtown public parking, or City Hall offices.

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Yet without this "proposed mitigation," the entire traffic study would result in an "unacceptable: threshold, hence making the "Negative Declaration" which the CVS Development required to move forward impossible.

To this reporter's knowledge, the NECESSITY of this MAJOR traffic change at the heart of downtown Sebastopol (our library, Main Street shops and City Hall) have NEVER been debated in a public forum, or even reported in the many articles covering this already unpopular project.

Indeed, even Kathelen Shaffer, the City Council member who has been the development's most vocal supporter, told me that she would not support banning left turns onto Bodega from High Street. On July 25, I spoke to Ms. Shaffer, who happens to live on High Street. She said she was aware of the mention of the High Street change, but said she would oppose it. She seemed entirely unaware that in accepting the "Mitigated Negative Declaration," she, and other members of the Council, have ALREADY APPROVED of this traffic change. And if the development is built, they will have NO LEGAL CHOCIE BUT TO ACCEPT THIS ENORMOUS TRAFFIC CHANGE.

In an email response to this reporter's question City Attorney Larry Mclaughlin confirmed this, explaining that "a Mitigated Negative Declaration requires adherence to any listed mitigation measures."

Attorney Mclaughlin also noted that this information was made public as part of the traffic study, with ample time for public comment. Yet Council Member Shaffer's recent comment to me--that she would not support a change to igh Street traffic, suggests that our City Council has not debated, and is not aware, of the full consequences of their approval of the "Negative Declaration."

So here We, the People of Sebastopol, learn for the first time, that our elected representatives in City Council will find themselves voting on a final approval for a development that will not only permanently, negatively transform the appearance, but will also disrupt major traffic patterns, at two of out most important intersections, in a way that very few of us are aware of. At the same time, Sebastopol's City Council will be asked to violate the city's own established procedures in allowing the Design Review Board to do its job and evaluate design. And, in the view of so many of citizens, a development that violates the General Plan by pretending that Planning Director Kenyon Webster's edict, that this suburban design, without a single door to the street it faces, is consistent with the "Small Town" imperative that is supposed to guide our city's planning.

And if all this were not enough, we have Council Member Michael Keyes public concern that Armstrong Development acted deceptively to the Council and public when it stated that it had responded to City Council concerns and lowered the height of the development, when it simply had not.

And, to top this all off, even Planning Director Kenyon Webster's Agenda Report concluded that the City Council's conditions had not been met by Armstrong, and therefore should insist upon a doorway to the street at the corner of Sebastopol Avenue and Petaluma Avenue. Webster's report noted, "As this was an issue highlighted in the Council resolution, staff is recommending that a doorway be provided at this location, and a condition be required that the design be revised prior to the issuance of a Building Permit." (see point 14, item 3.a. on page 5: https://ci.sebastopol.ca.us/sites/de...tinuation_.pdf)

Yet during the follow-up public hearing on July 19, Armstrong was asked directly by a Council to revise the design to include the door, and that request was categorically refused by Armstrong's representative, who insisted that it would be economically unfeasible to staff a street side door.

All of these inconvenient truths do not bode well for the CVS development on August 7. In fact, a 5-0 vote denying this appeal is not unimaginable. Because like global warming, the closer you get to this situation, the more alarming it becomes.

Jonathan Greenberg is founder and CEO of Progressive Source Communications and TV1.com. An author and investigative journalist, his work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, GQ, New York Magazine, Forbes and Money. Jonathan resides in Sebastopol.

[Helen Shane]

Well said, Jonathan.

See everyone tomorrow, with bright shiny faces.

Helen Shane

[Shepherd]

Thanks, Jonathan, for this thoughtful analysis. Your points are examples of the many disruptive things in our small town that approving Chase/CVS would bring. Though we have been discussing this matter for around two years, I think that there would be many other negative consequences that we have not yet considered.

I urge everyone who can to join us tomorrow evening after 6 p.m. at the Community Center to listen to what our elected officials say and how they vote. It is time to stop this development, in spite of the strong-arming of Chase/CVS/Armstrong. In the Nov. 6 election, please vote only for City Council candidates who have bravely come out against this disastrous development and the small minority that support it, in spite of the muscle of big business wanting to dominate our downtown commons. It is our town, not theirs.
Shepherd

By Jonathan Greenberg
WaccoBB.net
August 6, 2012

Like the global warming crisis, the deeper one looks into Armstrong Development's CVS/Chase project, the worse the situation seems to get.

Should the City Council vote to negate the findings of Sebastopol's duly authorized Design Review Board and approve the enormously unpopular CVS-Chase development, a little known, undebated consequence will be that the city will be legally obligated to ban left turns onto Bodega Avenue from High Street. This means that anyone driving from the City's most important public locations: our library, our City Hall,and out downtown shop parking lot, will be unable to drive the way they have for decades.