Fountaingrove Environmental Impact Report - City of Santa Rosa ...

ES082008001BAO_Fountaingrove_publicComments_v3.indd_090408_lho
JOHNSON – 1
From: Galbraith, Joel [JGalbraith@ci.santa-rosa.ca.us]
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 8:12 AM
To: Gerut, Mary/BAO
Subject: FW: Fountaingrove Lodge EIR
From: Niewald, Anette
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 8:07 AM
To: Galbraith, Joel
Subject: FW: Fountaingrove Lodge EIR
Anette Niewald
Community Development/Planning Division
City of Santa Rosa
(707) 543-3226
aniewald@srcity.org
From: Tom Karsten [mailto:tk@mkgrp.com]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 3:08 PM
To: Niewald, Anette
Subject: FW: Fountaingrove Lodge EIR
From: Jim Johnson [mailto:jim@jimjohnsonassociates.com]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 2:38 PM
To: scott@hallandbartley.com; ncaston@sonic.net; pacisco@aol.com; Vicki@15000inc.com; Tom Karsten;
davidpoulsen816@msn.com
Subject: Fountaingrove Lodge EIR
To the Santa Rosa Planning Commission:
Page 1 of 2
This letter is to call your attention to the oldest, most historical part of Santa Rosa that will be destroyed by the
proposed development called the Lodge and point out the inappropriate size, style, and mass of this huge
complex. We have lived in Santa Rosa for almost 30 years. In 1996 we moved into Stonefield, a small compact
neighborhood of modest homes near the bustling Fountaingrove Parkway. My wife and I decided to spend the
rest of our life in Stonefield for two reasons—the panorama of the Santa Rosa plain we see from our balcony;
and the historic piece of Santa Rosa on which we live.
Unfortunately a gigantic commercial complex of densely-packed rooms and apartments, dining and food
preparation facilities, noisy loading docks, and hundreds of outdoor parking lots—a overwhelming footprint on
the land that would be several thousand feet long and as much as 100 feet high—may bury much of these
historic acres and destroy hundreds of beautiful old trees, including irreplaceable native oaks. This proposed
commercial facility would be so huge, with so much concrete, bricks, lumber, driveways, and parking lots that
it will completely overwhelm this historical part of old Santa Rosa, bringing more traffic, noise pollution, air
pollution and, at night, light pollution.
This is the land where one hundred fifty years ago stood the Victorian mansions, the unique Round Barn,
thousands of acres of lush vineyards, and the original winery of Thomas Lake Harris and Kenaye Nagasawa.
While city planners and developers have already destroyed much evidence of the buildings and vineyards of the
remarkable historical settlement and habitations that stretch back to the earliest human settlements at Fountain
Grove, these woods that The Lodge will replace are still what Fountain Grove must have looked like back in the
seventeenth century when native Indians occupied the mountain overlooking the flat plain that was to become
file://C:\Documents and Settings\mgerut\My Documents\Fountain Grove\Comment_Letters\Johnso...
8/1/2008