From Our Readers
Peninsula News – Saturday, January 26, 2008

Protest RHE development  

To the Editor:

     While most of us residents have been busy working in our offices, busing our kids to school and activities, and trying to maintain a semblance of a family unit, the city of RHE has made some rather negative, life-changing decisions in both the economics and environmental arenas. Do you want your property value to drop? Do you want the air quality of the Peninsula to be that of the city of Pasadena? Do you want it to take you an hour to get off of the Hill in your car? Well, unless everyone starts to pay attention to the huge developments that are occurring in the Deep Valley Drive/Silver Spur area, that is exactly what is going to happen. RHE has already approved four projects that add 133 housing units with potentially 266 cars with at least 266 more people. RHE is presently trying to approve an additional 75 units (with some commercial). The environmental report on this development that RHE has obtained states there are no impacts or less than significant impacts. All I can say is, Get real, RHE. I am a partner in an environmental firm that studies these kinds of issues. RPV, RHE, PVP, RH and PVE residents need to challenge RHE.

    Ask yourself: When have you gone to the Peninsula Center and found a parking spot without having to drive around the lot several times? Now use the same thought process for the Bristol Farms parking lot. What about the current traffic jams at our intersections? Now imagine the currently approved 266 cars using the same roads, and parking, and the obvious increase in air pollution. To make the situation even bleaker, imagine the current pending project at 927 Deep Valley (75 units, 150 cars). The cumulative total is approximately 416 more cars in the area from Silver Spur to Deep Valley Drive. What about the impacts to our public schools? Don’t you think that literally hundreds of people that couldn’t otherwise afford to live on the Peninsula will move in just to attend our schools?

    RHE is piecemealing projects to avoid the evaluation of the cumulative impact of all of the projects, which is in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act. I am challenging the current report's air, transportation/traffic, public services, recreation, geology, aesthetics and biology. We need to come together and protest this development.

A public hearing will be held to review the project on Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at RHE City Hall. We need people to attend. It is important!

                                                                                                            Julie Reynolds
                                                                                                            Rolling Hills Estates