Petition Drive Sets Stage For Passionate Objection to High Density Trilogy Condos During 7:30 Morning Architectural Review Commission Meeting on 10/25

Folsom, CA Marie Bodeman and a good friend Kristel Mahmoud, both concerned Empire Ranch residents, along with scores of other volunteers have initiated a petition drive and have been collecting signatures for submittal to City Staff prior to the Architectural Review Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday Morning, October 25, 2007 at 07:30 A.M. in City Council Chambers.

THREE ACTION ITEM STEPS NEEDED TO DEFEAT THIS PROPOSED CONDO PROJECT AT EAST NATOMA AND GOLF LINKS:
Step 1, Sign petitions and get more signatures

For those who have not yet had the opportunity to express your objection to this project by signing a petition, please download a copy of the petition at this link: 2007 Petition Against Condos Our goal is to deliver, to City Staff, as many voter signatures against this project as possible by Wednesday, October 17th. That way, all petitions will be included in the official Staff Report to the Architectural Review Commission in preparation for their public meeting on Thursday morning, October 25th at 07:30 A.M.

Therefore, please download a petition, sign it yourselves and at the minimum have your neighbors on each side of you sign it, along with asking the owners of the three homes across the street from you to sign it as well. If 50 people download this petition and all twelve homeowners/voters sign each petition as described, we could have an additional 600 signatures to present to City Staff, in addition to those signatures already collected.

Please send, or deliver, all signed petitions to the attention of Patrick Warholic, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 605 Coolidge Drive, Suite 100, Folsom, CA so as to arrive in my office no later than noon on Wednesday, October 17, 2007.

Step 2, Attend all public meetings

Our next big rally point is to get as many people as possible to attend the Architectural Review Commission meeting at City Council Chambers scheduled for Thursday morning, October 25, 2007 at 07:30 A.M. Please understand and recognize that this is where YOU can make a difference. NUMBERS of homeowners/voters do count and this is a prime example of where a real grass roots effort will pay us all many dividends.

Please note that with the Architectural Review Commission, they ONLY are able to take comments regarding architectural issues - and can not discuss zoning issues, or even if condos vs. retail/commercial is the right thing to do. Therefore, we need to direct the discussion towards what we WOULD agree to having in our neighborhood - IF the Planning Commission and City Council would ultimately rule in favor of rezoning from Retail - Light Commercial (current zoning) to Multi-Family.

Recognizing that perhaps retail/commercial may not be economically viable for the entire 10 or 11 acres, we might eventually be able to make a case with the Planning Commission for mixed use, with possible some retail right on the corner and perhaps single story luxury condos on the rest of the property.

Thus, our unified presentation to the Architectural Review Commission should be demanding a maximum density of 40 to 50 single story luxury condos on this property, if we can't have our originally planned neighborhood retail center or single family detached homes. This is something where we CAN make our voices heard with the Architectural Review Commission. In fact, we should press them hard to ONLY APPROVE 40 to 50 single story luxury condos, with steep pitched roofs, multi-faceted roof lines with dormers, stone facades, and other architectural design features that would make a project of this nature FIT in our current community. Any project with more than 50 units just would be too dense (i.e., 141 two story units) to blend in with our current single family residential communities of Empire Ranch and The Parkway.

Be careful to not get off track trying to talk about zoning or traffic issues, as the Architectural Review Commission members will quickly remind you that they can only address and make recommendations on ARCHITECTURAL ISSUES. Single story vs two story, roof pitches and roof lines, facades and exterior finishes, club house, swimming pool, green areas, etc. If they point out that we already have two story homes in our neighborhood (which they will, I guarantee it), then acknowledge we would gladly accept a mixture of two story and single story SINGLE FAMILY DETACHED homes in this area - but not all two story condos packed in to allow 141 units. That is just too dense for this location in the middle of Empire Ranch and The Parkway.

When you arrive for the meeting, please try to arrive early and fill out a card requesting time to speak on the record at the podium. Everyone who requests time, will get their two minutes or so to present their feelings on this proposed project.

Our GOAL for the 07:30 October 25th meeting is to present a unified position, from enough people, so as to cause the Architectural Review Commission to reject the two story project and send it back to the Applicant with a request to revise the project to be more in line with the citizen's/voter's concerns. We must make it clear, that our unified position is to accept nothing less than a minimum of 40 to 50 housing units built on this parcel. Any more than that, is just too dense. Period. Paragraph.

After this meeting, as many of us as possible should then plan on attending the Traffic Safety Committee Meeting scheduled for the same day, October 25th at 4:00 P.M. This is the place to express all of our concerns about the adverse effect of having 140 to 250 additional cars trying to negotiate that intersection, even though the City is planning on installing traffic lights at Golf Links and East Natoma by the end of this month or next.

Step 3, Send e-mails and letters to City Staff, Architectural Review Commission, Planning Commission, and City Council Members

Here is the latest list of e-mail addresses that I have been able to put together for the Mayor and City Council Members, City Staff associated with this project, Architectural Review Commission members, and Planning Commission members. Please write to them all and express your strong objection to having a dense (141 units) multi-family residential project stuck right in the middle of two very nice communities of single family homes - Empire Ranch and The Parkway. Let them know that if we are unable to keep the zoning as it is now - Retail/light commercial, then we would prefer just to have additional single family homes on this property. However, if that is not a viable project, then the most units we would find acceptable would be to build 40-50 single story luxury condos, complete with steep pitched roofs, multiple roof lines, dormers, stone facades, and complete with club house and swimming pool.

The following e-mail address list is set up so all you have to do is copy the entire list and paste it into your e-mail program as you are composing a new e-mail message:

themayor@folsom.ca.us; andy@themorins.com; eric@ericking.org; corrprincess@ardennet.com; smiklos@folsom.ca.us; jstarsky@folsom.ca.us; admindept@folsom.ca.us; lgullone@folsom.ca.us; etscott@sbcglobal.net; john.arnaz@comcast.net; mgordon@cwnet.com; Greg.Eldridge@ch2m.com; robin@robinkaplan.com; c_vanderveen@yahoo.com

Also, please copy me in the cc field at: pwarholic@calhomenet.com . Thank you everyone, as all of this activity will help us get our point across and hopefully defeat this proposed condo project.

Folsom Architectural Review Commission pdf file
Folsom Planning Commissioners pdf file
Folsom City Council pdf file


Please do volunteer to help us get the word out to all our concerned neighbors. We need petition circulators, announcements distributed, and general grass roots workers to be successful with stopping this project.

Also, please feel free to record your comments at the bottom of this posting. Thank you and stay tuned for more details as they develop.

(NOTE: Please be aware that this is a Community Forum, written as a Blog, so as to allow as many people as possible to provide their own comments. To comment, please click on Post a Comment either here or at the bottom of this posting.

AUTOMATIC E-MAIL UPDATES: If you are not already getting automatic e-mail notifications regarding late breaking news on this website and want to, please click on this title or go to the upper right hand corner of this home page and register. Pass this information on to your friends and neighbors as the more knowledgeable people we have expressing their objections to Folsom officials and Council Members, the better chance we have to keep out two and three story condos from our beautiful neighborhoods.

Thank you again for your help and assistance. It's a good life here in Empire Ranch and The Parkway. Lets all help to keep it that way. Make it a good day.

Best regards,

Patrick Warholic
Realtor, and Home Marketing Consultant

Contact Patrick

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