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Planners delay vote on hillside ordinance
Supporters, opponents lock horns on restrictions that affect developers
| Thursday, Jul 6 2006 11:08 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jul 6 2006 11:20 PM
Heated debate over a revised hillside development ordinance ended in a stalemate Thursday night.
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Bakersfield planning commissioners found themselves buried in more than two-and-a-half hours of reports, accusations and PowerPoint presentations.
When public comments wound down, at 10 p.m., commissioners said they’d heard enough.
They postponed a decision until Aug. 17.
The proposed ordinance limits building on steep slopes and ridge tops in the hillsides and bluffs near Hart Park. The ordinance drew hearty support and fiery denunciation.
Supporters of controversial The Canyons project and members of the conservative Kern Citizens for Property Rights denounced the ordinance.
They called it an illegal, un-American government taking of private property.
“Did I somehow walk into chambers in somewhere like Berkeley, California?” said Kern Citizens spokesman Chad Vegas. “If you vote for this ordinance, I want you to know you’re voting to steal this man’s land.”
The man he was speaking of was local businessman Gordon Downs, who owns a critical 40-acre segment of The Canyons and is partnered with project developer General Holding of Sacramento.
Downs said his engineers have told him the ordinance will completely eliminate his ability to develop homes on the land.
City Planning Director Jim Movius said he will prepare a response to that, and other accusations, when the ordinance comes back to the commission.
Bill Cooper, who helped develop the Kern River Parkway, said property owners need to understand they don’t operate in a vacuum.
“I urge you to adopt the ordinance tonight,” he told commissioners. “I think that as long as a couple of people live next to each other, there are no absolute property rights. Personal rights are always tempered by other people’s rights.”
The core of the conflict over the ordinance centers around provisions that limit where developers can build on hilly property.
It prevents any structure from being built on the face of hills and on bluffs that can be seen from major roads.
It also limits how much of a building, on top of a hill or bluff, can be seen from a major road. In others, only half the building can show from one mile away.
The proposed rules pinch developers who want to build to the edge of ridges or carve into hillsides to craft tiers of homes near major roads.