The county is moving ahead in processing the proposed 206-home Roberts Ranch project off Fairview Road, but neighboring Cielo Vista development homeowners are continuing to put up a fight.
Some neighbors in the 76-home Cielo Vista subdivision, abutting the land where the proposed Roberts Ranch project would go, are up in arms over the location of the project, size of homes and impacts the construction might have on their quality of life.
Former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti’s development company Hollister Enterprises LLC is proposing to build the homes on 53 acres on the parcel bordering Fairview Road to the east. Hollister Enterprises is proposing the project on existing organic farmland at 841 Fairview Road without any affordable units included in the blueprints, with lots ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 square feet.
The former supervisor had been one of the staunchest critics in the early 2000s against the nearby 700-unit West of Fairview project from Award Homes—which is working on its first set of houses—due to lacking infrastructure at the time. Scagliotti was recently in the news after a judge found him guilty of conflict of interest violations as a supervisor, related to development dealings, and ordered him to pay nearly $250,000 to the plaintiff in the case.
Other projects along that portion of Fairview Road include 1,200 homes from Santana Ranch and another 220 lots from Fairview Corners.
The planning department is progressing on its end. It received a county board approval last week to hire law firm Miller Staff Regalia for legal services related to the project, with the $247,000 cost reimbursed by Hollister Enterprises as part of the development agreement.
The county is hosting a scoping meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the board chambers, 481 Fourth St., to present the environmental impact document and take comments from residents. The public can make comments to the planning department through April 13.
One of the residents likely to share her view to officials is Roberta Daniel, president of the Cielo Vista Homeowners Association. She is concerned not only about the permanent impacts, but also the prospect for a 10-year construction window on the project.
“We neighbors are unhappy that we would have to listen to construction noise and deal with dirt and dust for 10 years,” Daniel wrote to the Free Lance.
In an interview, Daniel said her family has been living there for 12 years. She had been hoping to buy one acre behind their home, but then out the land, still being farmed as organic row crops, had been purchased for the Scagliotti development.
Some of the issues she pointed to included changing zoning from one-acre rural residential to accommodate more density; lots as low as 5,000 square feet; limited setbacks from a shared fence line of 20 feet in some cases; and the potential for noise and congestion during the construction period.
She said residents in Ridgemark, Quail Hallow and other developments plan to oppose it as well. Daniel argued that housing development should happen in other areas of the county.
“We all moved from city locations to be in the country,” Daniel said, “and it won’t be country anymore.”
Scaglitto could not be reached immediately.
