“It would be unfair to the Robert Green Co. to assume what happened up there is going to be what happens in Windsor,” MacNab said. “Plus, I think the nature of the land for the project is a lot different in Windsor than it is in Healdsburg, so I don’t even know if we have the potential for those types of violations in our town.”
The Healdsburg project — a 130-room luxury resort on the northern edge of town with 70 villas across a vineyard-studded landscape with numerous amenities — has been controversial from the start, in large part because of its scale and price point.
Green bought the property in 2005 for $16.8 million. He won city approval for his plan in 2008 but did not begin construction until May 2017.
Green previously estimated the cost at $310 million, saying he hoped to open in 2020. On Wednesday, he confirmed the hotel was still on track to be finished by the end of this year in spite of the work stoppages. The project required grading and disturbance of about 65 acres of land in the hills on the city’s edge, with little attention to how that exposed land would fare when rain came, water regulators said.
Beginning with the first significant rainfall of the season on Oct. 3, 2018, staff conducting routine inspections for the regional board and the city of Healdsburg, which is tasked with ensuring contractors are in compliance, began documenting vast expanses of unprotected, exposed mud and puddled water, sediment-laden runoff leaving the site and finding its way to Foss Creek and Lytton Creek, among other waterways, according to board documents. The Russian River watershed supports coho and chinook salmon and steelhead trout — all of them protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Fine sediments can get in a fish’s gills and cause suffocation or can smother their eggs or obstruct their view of food, Villacorta said.
“Those observations we weren’t able to make,” she said. “It requires a complete bioassessment of the site. But there is that threat. There was a high potential of that occurring.”
In November 2018, after several city reports of deficiencies, water board staff gave Green 10 days notice of a Nov. 29 inspection that included reference to several days of rain in the forecast. City personnel already had informed the developers of deficiencies in its erosion and runoff controls, according to board documents.
Two large storms came in the intervening days, and when the inspection occurred, “staff observed hundreds of instances of inadequate sediment and erosion control efforts, as well as evidence of gross sediment discharges to receiving waters,” board personnel reported. “A reasonable and prudent person would have corrected the deficient (best management practices) ... and ensured they were functioning throughout the site, especially given the forecasted rain event.”
David Mickaelian, Healdsburg’s city manager, and Larry Zimmer, the city’s public works director, each declined repeated requests for an interview for this story on Wednesday through city spokeswoman Rhea Borja. City staff has continued to monitor the project and was unaware of any other work stoppages since March, Borja said.
MacNab, Windsor’s town manager, said the violations at the luxury hotel site in Healdsburg would be unacceptable on the proposed civic center project, on which the Town Council will meet to discuss on Feb. 5.
“I can tell you with no uncertainty that it would be the town’s expectation that he follows approvals, the regulatory requirements and that he maintains a project that’s in compliance during construction,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that is the expectation of myself, our council and our community.”
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB. Staff Writer Kevin Fixler can be reached at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.
"fine" - Google News
January 23, 2020 at 02:59PM
https://ift.tt/2tMDCTA
Montage Healdsburg resort developer recommended for $4.9 million fine for environmental violations - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
"fine" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2NyjnPq
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment