Honorable Supervisors, I am addressing September 26, 2023, Agenda Item 4c, Direction to Planning and Building Services on scope and prioritization of General Plan amendment and/or ordinance amendment for Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council’s (MAC’s) Draft Redwood Valley Community Action Plan and Design Guidelines. The MAC desires permission to provide comments on building plan applications, based on the proposed Redwood Valley Community Action Plan (CAP), which will add additional guidelines to commercial and industrial development beyond the current building permit.
The Community Action Plan, or CAP, was created over recent years by hundreds of citizens with 4 large meetings and over a dozen smaller meetings, each including MAC members and public members. Redwood Valley citizens identified the main topics for action which include: Agriculture, Public Safety, Environment, Economic Development and Housing, and Public Infrastructure.
The CAP was written to “guide the vision” of retaining community character and preventing poor design of commercial and industrial buildings. We support development which avoids a monotonous environment but has a design image that includes open space and landscaping, is energy efficient, and compatible with existing well-designed development. Our Plan, seven years in the making, is relevant, important, benefits RV citizens, is citizen created, and crucial to preserve quality of life in Redwood Valley. Other than this Plan, there is no comprehensive plan for development in our community in the County General Plan. Planning and Building Services has stated that this will come at additional expense and time delay for these land uses. If public comment has that effect, so be it.
You may recall the great effort the Redwood Valley community engaged in to prevent Dollar General from being established in Redwood Valley a few years back, which culminated in a BOS Resolution affecting County-wide formula businesses, and simply now allows citizens the right to comment on permits of such businesses.
The Design Guidelines provide best principles for commercial and industrial development that includes sections that recommend better building architectural guidelines such as height, bulk, scale, color, roofs, awnings; and suggestions for setbacks, open space, lighting, site grading, parking design, fences, signage, energy efficiency, and landscaping. These guidelines will promote new commercial development with tasteful architecture, and industrial development within like-zoned areas with landscaping and adequate screening from the road. The MAC can review building permits and provide comments based on the Design Guidelines.
We are trying to prevent visual blight and environmental degradation in Redwood Valley and provide an element to the County General Plan that preserves community character. Visual blight affects the public’s outlook and pride of place and should be of concern to the entire County, which is so dependent on tourism. Planning and Building is seeking direction form the Board regarding scope and prioritization of the CAP, a Plan which merely gives logical guidelines to future runaway development, and gives the affected community a voice in development. We hope to incorporate our Plan as the RV element of the County General Plan. Thank you. Dolly Riley, Chair of Redwood Valley MAC