Waiting for Felton Meadow Project Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR)
Posted on: September 3, 2016 1:20 pm
NOW: The Felton Meadow this Spring
LATER: Valmont’s bike flow trails
In early March, the County Planning Department requested input on what should be included in the Felton Meadow Project’s Environmental Impact Report, in a “Notice of Preparation (NOP) of the Draft Environmental Impact Report.” The NOP was distributed to agencies and organizations throughout the County. Agencies such as NMFS-NOAA and the SLV Water District, and organizations like the Valley Women’s Club’s Environmental Committee, submitted letters and comments to the Planning Department. Dozens of issues regarding the environmental, social and economic impacts of the proposed “Adventure Park,” were suggested. The adequacy of the park’s high-tech infrastructure was one of the main questions, due to concerns about the impact of water use and complex wastewater management. Appealing to bicyclists, with bike flow-trails and pump tracks, the massive changes that involve removing over 14,000 cubic yards of top soil and bringing in over 17,000 cubic yards of fill and engineered soils was also among the lead concerns. Also included was the impact on traffic and nearby neighborhoods of construction over a 6 to 10-year period, with hundreds of trucks loaded with soil and materials coming and going.
The Planners recently announced that they are awaiting technical data from Mt. Hermon for the Draft EIR to be completed, then the community will have the opportunity to comment on the information it contains. In the meantime, the Environmental Committee has compiled hundreds of sources of data demonstrating that the project has legal and environmental problems that are basically insurmountable, and they should not be allowed a permit to build.
Many of the data sources will be in place on the VWC website in the near future.
You may be interested in the response to the NOP that the Environmental Committee wrote…
Felton Meadow Project
The title given to the Mount Hermon “Adventure,” the Felton Meadow Project, is misleading. It is not Felton’s own plan, nor is there any “meadow” in the Felton Meadow Project — except in the name. Instead, it destroys rare open space, damages the cherished bucolic nature of the town, increases already severe traffic congestion, and potentially threatens both neighbors and the watershed.
When first hearing that a “bike park” was planned for a historic and unique meadow on Graham Hill Rd. and Conference Dr., it sounded like a fun idea for kids, like a skate park. Mount Hermon is a well-known and highly respected Evangelical Christian organization founded in 1906. It has a well-crafted plan, but that plan goes too far beyond their first assurances when announcing their purchase of the property. Because of that, we find ourselves leading a rapidly growing groundswell of opposition, as the massive scope and enduring impacts are understood of what is now being called an amusement park, transforming more than 12 acres at the entrance to the SLV. Mt. Hermon changed the name from The Mount Hermon Youth Recreation Project to The Felton Meadow Project, in an attempt to reshape both the ownership and intent of the development that rivals The Beach Boardwalk in size.