Developer returns with Rosedale shopping center proposal
| Wednesday, Nov 11 2009 04:30 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Nov 11 2009 04:30 PM
In August, a 3-2 vote of the Kern County Board of Supervisors killed a plan to build homes and apartments along Rosedale Highway at Driver Road in northwest Bakersfield.
Tonight Andreis Lewis with Neighborhood Development LLC will try to re-incarnate the project as a shopping center.
In August supervisors offered Lewis a bit of advice.
They suggested he wait until the Metropolitan Bakersfield General Plan is updated before bringing any new project back.
Apparently he's not taking that advice.
"I don't see how we can wait for another year and a half to see what the general plan is," Lewis told supervisors at the meeting.
Attempts to contact Lewis on Wednesday were not successful.
County planning staffers have recommended that the five-person Planning Commission deny this new request from Lewis tonight.
But ultimately, with or without Planning Commission blessing, Lewis will get the chance to go before supervisors again and make his new case.
A couple other interesting cases will also get their moment before the commission tonight.
The first is a proposal from Alta Windpower Development LLC to build the largest single windfarm in California in eastern Kern County south of Highway 58 and west of Highway 14.
The 800-megawatt project would be powered by 320 turbines and would be the first of two projects put forward by the company, which locked down a deal to provide 1,500 megawatts of wind energy to Southern California Edison in 2006.
The second project would add an additional 700 to 900 megawatts, according to Kern County Planning Department Special Projects Chief Lorelei Oviatt.
Another proposal on Thursday's agenda would build an oilfield services yard near Valley Acres -- a rural community on Highway 119 between Bakersfield and Taft.
Neighbors in large-lot ranchettes across the street from the project are angry about the plan.
But Oviatt said the land has the proper zoning and planners are recommending approval.
