Letter to the Editor

October 21, 2005

Stand up and speak out in Valley Springs

The people of Valley Springs need to decide what we want our community to be. Do we want to change current zoning to allow a rapid increase in size & population? Do we want Taco Bells, Targets, & more traffic?

'Pretty' Maps and Pictures Presented

CRV Enterprises, the developer of a 1000-home project called “Spring Valley”, gave a presentation to our community Thursday night (10/13/05) proposing just that. There were lots of impressive maps showing pretty blue and green areas and miles of imaginary trails. They assured people that they would mitigate the effects of the project.

Recipe for a Traffic Nightmare

But CRV’s plans do nothing to improve the congested and dangerous roads in our area. And although the master plan shows a wide bypass through the project connecting Hwys. 12 & 26, it turns out that this is all wishful thinking—the planners hope someone else will build that bypass. Upon scrutiny, the only roadwork proposed by the developers will be a 2-lane road connecting Hogan Dam Road with Lime Creek Road. This project will add to our highway problems and also create two new potentially dangerous situations—the intersections of Lime Creek Road and St. Petersburg Road with Hwy. 12.

Calaveras County already has a $20 million price tag on the backlog of existing road improvement projects “necessary to…mitigate traffic impacts associated with new development” in the Valley Springs Benefit Basin. When will these or additional road problems be addressed? In the meantime, with the addition of 1,000 new homes, we would all be stuck with worsening congestion and more accidents on our roads.

Open Spaces, Rolling Hills and Oaks in Jeopardy

Most of us live here because we love the open spaces, the trees, the rolling hills, the lack of traffic jams, and the quiet pace of life. People of Valley Springs, please don’t just sit by and watch this unplanned, rapid growth happen, thinking “you can’t stop it”. You CAN make a difference to planning and growth in our area. You CAN write letters and attend meetings and let the Planning Dept., developers, and our Supervisors know the kind of community that you want to live in.

Colleen Platt

Valley Springs

(original published 10-21-05 in Calaveras Enterprise;

headings added for posting)