Sept 13 UPDATE:

Looks as if the Communities of Brookview and Glenmoor are VERY interested in making their ideas/thoughts/concerns heard to the City. We need to make this happen in a VERY small amount of time. More people doing a small amount of work is much easier than a few shouldering this load.

What is needed by Monday Sept 18:

• A community meeting within this next week, with agenda and purpose - the goal of unified (as much as possible) position to present to the City and Dunmore Homes

• Volunteers

  • Flyer handouts and door knocking - do take a walk at night anyway right now?

  • email forwards - tell everyone at school, church, Safeway - wherever!

  • do you have any experience in this type of process?

    • EIRs

    • Oak Tree preservation

    • Land preservation

    • Traffic impacts

    • Air quality impacts

  • Printing of flyers for the mail boxes / doors

• Any additional background information on this project, maps, insight is VERY welcome

  • Some of stated that there was a 'promise' by Dunmore to present this project personally back in June

• I am sure I have missed a ton of things - PLEASE fill out the form below and I will GLADLY post them ASAP!

  26 families gather on short notice  to find out more about this community and the Whispering Oaks proposed development

  Contact information for posting your comments and concerns as it relates to Whispering Oaks Zoning: Title 18 of the Lincoln Municipal Code is the “Zoning Ordinance” that applies to land within the City limits. The Zoning Ordinance assigns every piece of land in the City to a “zone” that describes the rules under which that land may be used.

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  Letters sent to LiveLoveLincoln wishing to be included on the site:

  Hello, I heard it through the grapevine that there is a proposed site for Beazer homes to be put in at the end of Savannah and between Glenmore. It saddens me to think that such a beautiful area has to be taken down just to build new homes. All those trees that have been there for so many years that our animal friends live in will be taken away. I believe the best thing to do with that area is to preserve it as a park so that we can enjoy the beauty of the trees and wilderness with our animal friends. I am not in favor of this project. The quality of Beazer homes will bring down the value of the homes in Brookview. We paid a great deal for our lots and home so that we can live hear and maintain the value of our homes. Do not take away what we have worked so hard for. I do not wish to have my friends and neighbors move away. I know when the apartments that were put up on Joiner and 5th some of the people that lived on the street behind it sold there homes and moved away because of the apartments. It will bring more traffic to an already problem area. On 5th through savannah we have a speeding problem and failure to stop at the sign at savannah. Thanks for listening to my concerns. Renee Morgan

  Please keep me posted on whispering oaks - I would love to do whatever I can do to help stop the high density building. I emailed my letter to Marianne tonight. -Denise thank you for getting people / neighbors together for this.

  Hi, What a great idea, I had no idea this website existed! Thanks. Kelly Glomson

  Good day Mrs. Nockles-Lockwood, I would like to go on record as "against" the project as currently described in your letter dated August 28, 2006 (SCH #2005012127) I personally hosted a community meeting at my home attended by 26 homeowners from Brookview and Glenmoor who had an opportunity to express their concerns and ideas. An additional 7 more responded via email with their views, some of which have allowed them to be expressed via the website www.LiveLoveLincoln.com. While the vast majority admitted that development was to come to this parcel (the small minority wanted to maintain an open space and save as many trees and wildlife as possible) in some form - we all agreed that this medium to high density project was of the wrong scope to fit into the existing communities. Mr. Cuenca makes a valid and strong point for the 'apples to apples' approach (see his published letter on the above mentioned website) which started at the WWTP meetings. There are many letters supporting this viewpoint in very detailed summaries which I have been cc: on and support them all as published on the website. I also concur that the community was held out of this process until the very last minute and in some cases after several attempts by the homeowners individually to 'find out' what was going on with the parcel in question. In light of this I am formally asking for a similar process to proceed with this parcel, in which the City, the neighbors and Dunmore Homes work together to reach a final plan acceptable to most through a process of input and debate. Personally I have lived through what I see as the 'future' of the Northwest quadrant of Lincoln, without taking a step back and looking at the densities proposed. Thus I will take my personal objections to this project with my experiences and share them with you. I moved from the Bay Area in 1983 to Elk Grove. At that time EG had 1 red blinking light and no McDonalds on Elk Grove Blvd. After being very active in the communities of Elk Grove and South Sacramento for many years and seeing what vacant home ownership can do to perfectly peaceful neighborhoods, with heavy hearts pulled up our stakes and moved to what we saw EG was 10-12 years ago in Lincoln. In the 4 years since we have lived here we have seen the population triple in size and have seen many positive and encouraging aspects to the way the City is growing and embracing planned villages and new 'centers' to the landmark NEV declaration. In my honest opinion we will have at build out this quadrant an unbalanced level of medium and high density housing that just begs for vacant investors to snap up these units once the original buyers move on. Yes this process is slow and as stated it took over 10 years for these neighborhoods to transform themselves from quiet streets to the end result: multiple families living in the same residence, urban blight, incredible street traffic and finally the last straw, shootings and 1 murder. I personally knew the original tenants who occupied this home, they moved after they were robbed and threaten. They could not sell their 2200sf 2 10 year old home so they had to rent it. As it turns out the renters were part of this growing crime problem and it resulted in tragedy. Now this neighborhood of 12 years is routinely manned by police units with 3 officers per car. Growth happens, it just does not need to happen the way the current 'medium density' mostly unoccupied (and now selling for almost $100k LESS than the first phase sold for) Beazer 'town homes' at the Northeast corner of 5th and Joiner. Again I ask for the City to lead the way with vision and concern for all their residents no matter what class, race, or economic background for a balanced way of community and not 'placed' via a Redevelopment Zone's map Your neighbor and City supporter David McCreary 2138 5th Street Lincoln, CA 95648

  September 18, 2006   Ms. Marianne Nockles-Lockwood ACIP Senior Planner, Building Division Community Development Department City of Lincoln 640 Fifth Street Lincoln, CA  95648   Ms. Nockles-Lockwood:   Re: Proposed Dunmore Homes Whispering Oaks Development   We have several serious concerns and questions regarding this project:   1.      We object to the zoning being changed to allow higher density residential development.  It seems to us that the northwestern area of Lincoln already has and will be getting more than its share of higher density developments, such as this one, along with the various existing and planned apartment complexes and other higher density projects.  On the other hand, the areas south of Moore Road (i.e., Lincoln Crossing and 12 Bridges) seem to be predominately upper scale single family residences, with few higher density projects.             We view this to be poor urban planning that is creating, in effect, economic segregation and fostering social elitism.  We have heard more than a few prejudicial remarks by parents who refuse to have their children attend “ghetto” schools such as Creekside Oaks.  We have spoken to several families who are moving from northwestern Lincoln to neighborhoods in the southeast to escape this perceived trend.  This can only be expected to continue if the current disparate treatment of these areas by our city planners and managers continues.  Property values will fall and a “poor side of town” will have been created.             This is outrageous!   2.      We are concerned about the lack of an informational presentation addressing the project concept and details for the neighbors and other interested persons.  We heard that Dunmore initially offered to put on such a presentation last spring, but they did not follow through with that offer.  A forum similar to the WWTP Charrette to deal with issues surrounding the Whispering Oaks development would be useful.   3.      We would like to see any street layout and traffic flow studies that have been done.  We are concerned about potentially dangerous conditions where Whispering Oaks traffic flows to and from Nicolaus Road as well as increases in traffic flow in the adjacent neighborhoods.  We are also concerned that excessive on-street parking will create danger to playing children and obstruct street sweeping leading to a trash strewn neighborhood.   4.      We would like to be informed of the design and construction details of the fencing and walls proposed to surround the exterior of the development.   Sincerely Peter & Cheryl Hill 2168 Celtic Drive Lincoln, CA 95648 (916) 434-1322

  Dave,       Thank you for your efforts to keep the neighborhood informed on the proposed new developments.  I've noticed that Allen Cuenca has included a link to your website in his Lincoln news 9/12/06 email.       I've obtained a larger (11" x 17") set of prints from Marianne Nockles-Lockwood.  The details on these prints are much more legible than the prints on your website or those in the package the city mailed out to area residents.  I will gladly make them available to you or anyone else interested in using them to formulate comments letters to the city.       You commented: "Unlike the WWTP there will be no 'community forum' to discuss this project, except maybe this website."  Several weeks ago I asked Marianne if we could have a forum similar to the WWTP Charrette to deal with issues surrounding the Dunmore Homes' Whispering Oaks development.  She said Dunmore had offered to put on an informational presentation last June (2006) at the project site for city staff, the neighbors, and other interested persons -- but they had not followed through with their offer.        Marianne went on to say that, while the city was not in a position to demand that Dunmore host such a forum, she could press them if she received a strong and widespread expressions of interest/concern from nearby residents.  A campaign of letter-writing and phone calls orchestrated by yourself and Allen should help bring about that result.  Marianne also said she'd be willing to meet with the neighbors some evening if there were there were a sufficient number of interested persons that couldn't get away for a daytime meeting.  Please get the word out to your network of neighbors to call and write Marianne to request getting these public meetings and forums going.       Keep up the good work!   Peter & Cheryl Hill 2168 Celtic Drive Lincoln, CA 95648

  Marianne Nockles-Lockwood, AICP                                                                                       9/26/06 Community Development Department SUBJECT:       Revised Notice of Preparation: Draft Environmental Impact Report Whispering Oaks Project Dear Mrs. Nockles-Lockwood: Some of the comments in this letter may not be appropriate to bring up at this point in the project but it is my belief that concerns about projects should be voiced as early in the process as possible. The proposed project site plan as presented in Figure 3 appears to be incompatible with the neighborhoods which connect to the east, south and west.  The neighborhood to the east and south was planned with large lots utilizing extreme care in saving the majority of the oak trees which existed prior to development.  Some lots in this neighborhood are as large as one half acre in size with many over 10,000 sq ft.  The minimum lot size in Brookview 4-B is 6,200 sq ft.  The homes built in Brookview range in size from 1,700 sq ft to 3,200 sq ft.  The neighborhood to the west was also planned on large lots with many lots over 8,000 sq ft.  The minimum lot size in Glenmoor is 6,100 sq ft.  The homes built in Glenmoor range in size from ~1,600 sq ft to over 3,000 sq ft.  The proposed development of Whispering Oaks is a “CLUSTER STYLE” development attempting to develop 112 residential units on lots 33 feet in width and 83 feet in depth on 13.81 acres, when deducting 5.89 acres of park and open space, resulting in densities of over 8 units per acre.  This is a medium density development being squeezed between two subdivisions with densities in the 5 to 2 units per acre.  The proposed lots range in size from 2.065 sq ft to 4,346 sq ft.  The proposed housing units would range in size from 1,001 sq ft to 2,090 sq ft.  The proposed Whispering Oaks Subdivision, as proposed, is not compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods.  The Notice of Preparation references an earlier proposed project with 78 single family homes.  This type of development seems to be more compatible with surrounding neighborhoods.  “Apples to Apples.” ALTERNATIVE PROJECT SITE PLANS SHOULD BE REVIEWED AS PART OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT.  FURTHER PROJECT STUDY MUST BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO CIRCULATION OF AN EIR.  I believe it is also inconsistent with the General Plan to increase the density of homes on the Whispering Oaks property and the adjoining properties to the east up to Joiner Parkway.  Planning for Whispering Oaks cannot ignore these other lots.  Allowing the increased density for Whispering Oaks could set a bad precedent for these lots and open the door for them to develop with higher densities also.  The northwest quadrant of Lincoln is already oversaturated with “higher density” housing when compared with the rest of the City.  I believe this statement will still hold true even when the city reaches “build out.” Regardless of what type of housing product is ultimately approved, the idea of restricting pedestrian and EVA access only for Abbeyhill, Milan and Savannah should be investigated as well as a controlled intersection on Nicolaus Road so these homeowners will have a clear way to head west on Nicolaus without having to negatively impact existing neighborhoods.  Whispering Oaks, if approved as proposed, would have an unacceptable negative traffic impact on Brookview/Fifth street, Glenmoor, AND the proposed development on the City’s old WWTP site.  Regards, Allen S. Cuenca

  September 22, 2006  City of Lincoln, 640 Fifth St. Lincoln, CA ATTN:  Ms. Nockles-Lockwood. Dear Ms. Nockles-Lockwood,     I would like to politely and respectfully convey my strong concerns about the rezoning of the parcel between Milan Court and Nicolas from RE to R-20+ to allow Whispering Oaks to be built.      I participated in the charrettes regarding the Old Waste Water Treatment Plant.  I have the same MAIN concern with Whispering Oaks:  excessive traffic from the increased homes in Whispering Oaks (a conservative prediction of about 70-100) onto Fifth St. between Savannah and Joiner Parkway.  Add this to the potential additional cars from the WWTP proposed homes of a conservative prediction of about 150 cars for a total of a conservative daily increase of 250 cars on the segment of Fifth St. from Savannah to Joiner Parkway.  OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!  As easily as one might argue that alternative roads might be used, I can argue that they will not be used to get to downtown Lincoln, local schools, or to Joiner Parkway.  This increase of cars will also increase the odds of existing residents living on Fifth St. between Savannah and Joiner Parkway will be a victim of a severe accident due to Fifth St. residents trying to back-out of their driveways, especially near the blind curve on Fifth St.  This blind curve is near the intersection of Fifth St. and Butterfield Court.  This blind curve with current traffic load has already resulted in many near misses and daily frayed nerves.  The odds are not in favor of the Fifth St. residents. Also, the increased traffic will create loss of existing neighborhood cohesiveness and high quality of neighborhood interactions by changing the dynamics of a local neighborhood street to a main thoroughfare.  More cars could result in adding a few more habitual speeders due to the engineering of Fifth St.  Potentially, another negative result of the increase traffic is decreased pedestrian and bicycle traffic on this segment of Fifth St. making it less safe with so many cars/trucks/service vehicles, etc.  Increased traffic noise is another very major concern I have.  I will opt to keep my front-facing windows and doors closed to avoid the noise. Also, I do not have a favorable opinion of the existing Beazer-type home development on the corner of Fifth St. and Joiner Parkway, and I definitely do not want the same within ½ a mile in the SAME neighborhood.   The surrounding existing homeowners stand to loose the most from this proposed zone change at Whispering Oaks.  The developers were happy with RE until the housing market changed.  I have talked with several existing home developers in Lincoln this week and ALL are slowing down building for the long term.  And yet, the City of Lincoln is actually considering approving a zone change to build MORE HOMES.  If this zone change is approved, it will continue to negatively impact ALL the existing Lincoln homes on the market based on supply and demand.  The demand is LOW.  Where is the economic logic to approve this zone change???????   Is the City of Lincoln becoming more loyal to developers vs. protecting the standard of Lincoln living that has drawn so many of us here? If the City of Lincoln were in need of more money, personally I’d rather pay higher taxes than lose the quality of Lincoln life.  Also, more homes also mean increase demand on an already inadequate infrastructure.  Soon, the City of Lincoln could be sued for "false advertising" if the "All American City" quality of life continues to be jeopardized by irresponsible growth and zoning.  BALANCE.  LOYALTY TO EXISTING RESIDENTS.  BIG PICTURE.  LONG-TERM.  QUALITY.      There is a fine line between responsible growth and irresponsible growth.  In my opinion, the City of Lincoln is crossing that line.  I lived in Moreno Valley, CA in the late 80's and early 90's when it was dubbed the fastest growing city in California.  I experienced its growing pains and the fallout of irresponsible growth.  I moved away from there to HERE.  You will soon have a housing bust because of irresponsible growth.  We will lose our quality of life and quality of neighborhoods as more investors buy more homes due to lower prices, as more renters with insufficient ownership pride move in because investors can't resell.  Many of the larger homes in Moreno Valley became Section 8 or group homes.  As a result, the schools became burdened with students who needed more counseling, more probation officers, more security measures to protect these students from estranged parents, etc.  I have lived it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Better to have not enough homes for sale than too many.  THIS concept will keep Lincoln the place where so many want to live, not just “cheap homes in Lincoln.”  I strongly encourage you to speak with the Economic Manager of Moreno Valley so he/she can share the struggles in the 1990’s of building too fast.  The similarities scare me.  I am not against growth, I am against irresponsible growth.     I, along with several of my neighbors, will fight this zone change and development, anyway we can.  I equally, and strongly, share many of the same views of Peter and Cheryl Hill based on the posting of their comments on a neighborhood web site.  (I personally do not know the Hills.)  I continue to hear about the growing division between the east and west sides of Lincoln usually from total strangers.  I voiced similar concerns in writing to the City of Lincoln almost 3 years ago when I learned that 90% of the affordable housing was concentrated in the west side of Lincoln.  Let me assure you, I have not perpetuated this view/opinion/concern of division; thus, I have been equally stunned to hear so many strangers now sharing my similar concerns.   Last week, I saw an acquaintance from Roseville whose son lives in one of the First St. apartments.  She said, “I wish he would get out of there!”  It was a wise decision to stop publishing the addresses of Lincoln crimes from our Police Dept. in our newspapers. One last concern.  We are now hearing more about global warming.  The increasing of homes in this development means a decreasing in trees.  Roseville’s average temperature is 10 degrees higher because of their lack of natural open space.  “How will 78 trees make a difference?”  Add these few trees to the hundreds (thousands) already lost trees in Lincoln, and our average temperature will be climbing too.  With thousands of trees lost globally due to massive forest fires and developing, mature trees are becoming more rare than diamonds and gold.   SAVE THE TREES!   BOTTOM LINE:  There is MORE THAN ENOUGH EMPTY HOMES ALREADY with too many potential empty homes approved for the future.!!!!!!!!!!! Sincerely, Sue Hamman 2066 Fifth St. Lincoln, CA 95648 434-9953

  September 20, 2006  Ms. Marianne Nockles-Lockwood ACIP Senior Planner, Building Division Community Development Department City of Lincoln 640 Fifth Street Lincoln, CA  95648 Ms. Nockles-Lockwood: I would like to go on record as objecting to the proposal by Dunmore homes for a higher density residential development between Savannah Drive and Nicolas Road.  The developer has never followed through on their commitment to obtain public input.  The city is also not adequately demanding dispersion of the various high density or low income housing projects.  The northwest corner of Lincoln seems to be getting a disproportionate share of this type of development.  The Joiner Parkway corridor is a prime example of excessive high density development.  This new proposal will only add to that traffic load and economic-demographic in one concentrated area. I supported the Waste Water Treatment Plant redevelopment plan as recently presented, even with it’s mixed density housing, but only because it was not exclusively high density.  I would not have supported it with ANY high density lots if I had known there was also another project in the works with high density nearby.  The two projects are closely linked, with some primary access routes coming from the Fifth Street and Savannah Drive intersection.   I live by that intersection, on Savannah Drive.  The curve of the road just north of the S. Markham Ravine bridge is essentially a blind curve.  If there was a high volume of traffic leading into a high density neighborhood, then this curve becomes dangerous.  It is already somewhat of a problem. While the contention may be made that primary access will be from Nicolas Road, I believe that premise is false.  Commuters coming home in the evening, or those drivers returning from the primary grocery stores and schools at this end of town will be traveling north on Joiner Parkway.  Why would they continue on, through at least 2 traffic signals, when they can cut through the residential area with essentially only one Stop sign, and reach their homes, placed along the eastern edge of the development, that much quicker.   The answer is that they won’t.  They will cut through Brookview by going down 5th Street, and down Savannah, around a blind curve where kids play everyday. I understood when I bought my nice home 2 years ago that development would likely happen at this site.  Frankly, I was prepared for that.  However, I believe it is fairly universal amongst my neighbors that the expectation was the project would be similar in scope and density to the existing neighborhoods around it: Brookview and Glenmore. Clearly, I believe dropping a high density project into a pocket tucked between two upper-middle scale developments, without easy and direct primary access to main thoroughfares is a mistake, and detrimental to the safety and investment of the neighboring homeowners.   I would like to request an additional public comment opportunity for this project. Thank you for your consideration. Robert Lund 387 Savannah Drive 916-837-4484

  Add your comments here! Everyone is entitled to their own viewpoint, so get off the fence and be heard

  November 1 - Meeting with Dunmore Homes - BE THERE - Click here for full invite Round Number 2 - Public invite May 17th Summery of the newest plan from the developer: We have used the community’s primary input from last Fall’s site plan version in making our modifications.  The gist of that input, both from the letters to the City and verbally at the open house, was: ·         Traffic impact on local neighborhood roads.  We have applied for a full-turn intersection for the Whispering Oaks’ intersection w/ Nicolaus Road.  Additionally, we have added a street stub to the parcels to the northeast and removed the direct connection to Milan Way. ·         The lots and homes are too small.  We have moved further away from the textbook pull-apart groupings by morphing more traditional home styles into the cluster concept.  Home sizes increased from a 1,000 – 2,100 s.f. range up to 1,400 – 2,800 s.f.  Lot sizes have also increased. ·         The park isn’t important to us (existing residents).  We have decreased the size of the park. ·         Too many lots.  We have kept the project w/in the land use density assigned in the City’s current and proposed General Plans (< 6 du/acre).  The property can accommodate 117 lots in that category; we have 115 on this new site plan (up from 112 lots in the ’06 version). Download the site plan in PDF format here Also view it online at the City of Lincoln's site here