Planners OK new Frazier Park development
| Thursday, Oct 08 2009 10:28 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Oct 08 2009 10:28 PM
Frazier Park Estates moved forward to the Kern County Board of Supervisors with unanimous support of the Kern County Planning Commission Thursday.
But the version that moved forward was not the one proposed by developer Frank Arciero Jr. and his Fallingstar Homes company.
Commissioners blessed a sharply scaled down version proposed by Kern County Planning Department staff, which includes a maximum of 188 homes and a 104,000- square-foot commercial area.
The unanimous support came as a surprise after a contentious hearing on the project in August resulted in a 2-2 split vote in support of the original Estates proposal.
Both Commissioner Ron Sprague and Jeff Flores changed their vote and supported the staff recommendation.
Frazier Park Estates was originally proposed to contain 662 homes, 41 units of multifamily housing and the commercial area along Frazier Mountain Park Road near Flying J Travel Plaza.
Concerns about heavy cut-and-fill earthwork and an insufficient water supply for the project drove commissioners' decision.
"I think the water discussion in the full proposal is murky. The water picture in the scaled-down version is cloudy. It's not clear but it's better than murky," said Commissioner Pete Belloumini.
County planning staff said the project, as proposed by Fallingstar, violated county hillside ordinances with massive cut and fill work. It was also based on a water analysis that, staff said, did not show adequate groundwater was available for a project of that size.
After the August meeting, Fallingstar consultant Cornerstone Engineering worked to reduce the amount of cut-and-fill by reducing the size of the project.
Cornerstone president Derrill Whitten said the new plan would build only 601 homes. It removes 67 acres of cut and fill on steep slopes and reduces the total earth moved from 6.5 million cubic yards to 4 million cubic yards.
"We have significantly reduced the grading impacts of the project," he said. "The areas where we want to grade -- I call them bumps. We've gotten off the hilltops. We've gotten out of the canyons."
The project still has 47 acres of development that violates Kern County's hillside ordinance, said County Planning Department Special Projects Chief Lorelei Oviatt.
Jim Beck of the Kern County Water Agency challenged the water reports on the project, as did an attorney with the Lebec County Water District.
Ken Hurst of the El Tejon Unified School District presented a detailed argument that the project relied on inflated rainfall estimates to meet its water requirements.
Supporters of the project said the homes and the business they will bring are seriously needed in the Frazier Park area.
Whitten presented detailed water depth data from onsite wells and argued the project has proved there's no shortage of water.
"There's more than enough water to serve this project and the rest of the Frazier Park area," he said.
But commissioners decided to recommend the staff's lesser option to the Board of Supervisors.
"Cut and fills and engineering strategy have changed over the years because we've had failures," said Commissioner Chris Babcock. "I certainly can't support an applicant that wants to go against the hillside ordinance."
Supervisors will take up the project in December.
