By Noel Smith
A lively public meeting about the Aptos Village project was held the evening of April 22 at the Rio Sands Hotel in Rio del Mar. About 150 people filled the meeting with many having to stand. Second District Supervisor Zach Friend along with Mary Gourlay of Barry Swenson Builder conducted the meeting. Ron Duncan and Bruce Jaffe from the Soquel Creek Water District were there to provide information on the water issues while County Public Works senior traffic engineer, Jack Sohriakoff, addressed traffic issues. Questions were taken by writing them on cards that were sorted and answered by subject.
Supervisor Friend said that the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss approval of the Aptos Village project, as it was already approved in 2012, however, there has been an appeal of several project modifications asked for by the developer that will be on the agenda of the May 5 meeting of the County Board of Supervisors. The meeting was to receive public input on these modifications, to discuss what will happen during construction and what will be the impacts of the project on water, traffic, and public safety.
The major issues that were of concern to the public involved water use and runoff, traffic impacts of the project and traffic mitigation during construction.
In the first phase of the project are improvements to Granite Way – which will intersect and exit onto Cathedral Drive – the movement of the Apple Barn, which will be alongside the Village Green, and the construction of Aptos Village Way between Aptos Creek Road and Trout Gulch Road. The developer is required to pay Transportation Improvement Area fees based upon the new trips generated by the development. Those funds are being used to help finance the County’s portion of the improvements on Soquel Drive and Trout Gulch Road. Phase 1 construction is expected to start early 2016 and last for at least six months.
The homes and businesses in the Village will have high efficiency fixtures including ultra-high efficiency washing machines. The project will use artificial turf, rain gardens, pervious paving, and bioswales to treat storm water and maximize infiltration back into the soil. The Aptos Village project 160 percent water consumption reduction not only mitigates the water required for the completed Aptos Village, but also reduced district wide water consumption by an additional 60 percent.
Some of the project modifications that will be up for approval by the Board of supervisors include:
- Movement of the new Soquel Creek Water District well location
- Increase the number of residential units from 63 to 69 units by reducing size of some individual units while maintaining the total square footage of the project
- Re-alignment of Aptos Village Way from the Village Green to Trout Gulch Road to miss Bay View Hotel property. The Bay View Hotel is not part of the development.
Since the meeting answers to many of those question brought up at the meeting have been posted on the website: www.theaptosvillage.com/ FAQs. Also there is a 46 page Project Design Update with site drawings and detailed descriptions of the various elements of the project.
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Photo Credit: Mary Lee