On Thursday, February 7th, the Principals of Town Green at Scotts Valley hosted their third community workshop to share design concepts for the proposed 13-acre development. The presentation was held at the Scotts Valley Community Center and consisted of two identical presentations at 1:30 pm and 8:00 pm to allow community members with differing schedules to participate in the discussion.
Over 70 people attended the afternoon session and 40 attended the evening session. The program began with a 30-minute slide presentation, which can be viewed at www.ScottsValleyTownGreen.com.
The project Principal, Doug Ross, shared how the plan has benefited from prior community inputs during workshops held September 8th and November 10th. Plan changes included reducing building heights; reducing residential unit count from 350 to less than 225; and increasing local retail.
Project Architect Jon Worden from Healdsburg, CA explained the master plan components including the Town Green, surrounding entertainment and retail uses; how parking would be handled and location and types of housing to be provided. Jim Heid, FASLA, also of Healdsburg, shared landscape including flexible plazas and places for the Farmer’ Market; design of the Town Green and the role of a new ‘Main Street’ that would connect to Mt. Hermon Road.
Following the presentation the Development Team fielded questions from the audience. Q+A lasted for over an hour for both sessions. Some community members showed support for the plan and shared appreciation for how the plan has improved. Concerns were raised over parking for events such as the Fireworks and Beer Festival that currently occur in Skypark. Other concerns related to traffic and access, and at the evening session, Councilmember Jim Reed explained how the City’s General Plan update is currently gathering real time traffic volume and peak hour traffic counts at key intersections. He explained how this information would be used by the City to develop a comprehensive mitigation measures, should the project show significant impacts.
Other concerns focused on relocation of the Dog Park and Pump Track, currently located on the project site. At the afternoon session, City Manager Jenny Haruyama explained that these facilities were never meant to be permanently in this location, and they will be fully relocated before the existing facilities are decommissioned.
Both presentations ended with Ross explaining the next steps, which include finalizing the land purchase agreement with the City of Scotts Valley and then obtaining planning approvals from the Planning Commission and Council. He noted he hopes these would be complete by end of 2019, allowing construction to start in 2020.
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For more information: www.scottsvalleytowngreen.com