Frazier Park Estates project delayed after heated debate
| Friday, Aug 28 2009 04:11 PM
Last Updated Friday, Aug 28 2009 04:13 PM
The hotly-debated Frazier Park Estates project will be delayed more than three months by a split vote of the Kern County Planning Commission Thursday night.
It will come back for a vote in October but won't get a chance for approval from the Kern County Board of Supervisors until December.
Four commissioners -- missing one of their number -- split their vote 2-2 just before midnight, unable to decide whether to approve the project or a lesser option supported by staff of the Kern County Planning Department.
Frazier Park Estates was proposed as a 662-home project married to a shopping center and grocery story on the hillsides and flat land south of Lebec along Frazier Mountain Park Road near Interstate 5.
The commission vote split, and scheduling conflicts, forced project developer Frank Arciero Jr. to accept the delay until December.
Debate centered around planning staff's proposed compromise plan, which left the shopping center intact but slashed 474 homes from the project to prevent massive earthmoving on the project's steep 30 percent to 60 percent slopes.
"We have never approved a project with this kind of grading anywhere in Kern County," said planning division chief Lorelei Oviatt.
Concerns about valid water supplies and danger from the San Andreas Fault, which runs through the site, also create pause for planners, she said.
Consultants on the project were livid with planning staff, who they accused of making it appear like the project had county support.
"When I read the staff report I went from mad to confused and, as I stand here tonight, disillusioned," said spokesman Mike Callegy. "The staff report could have been one page. Scrap seven years of work."
Callegy said county staff could have told them six years ago that they wouldn't support building on greater than 30 percent slopes and the developer wouldn't have spent the $6 million to move the project forward. He complained the creation of a hillside ordinance in the area created an unfair situation for Arciero.
But staff fired back that they repeatedly told Callegy -- early in the process -- that they do not offer support to projects in early stages and only develop project recommendations at the end.
And, Oviatt noted, Arciero's development team was involved in the process that drafted the Frazier Park Specific Plan and the hillside ordinance, which limits the cut-and-fill that can be done in Frazier Park Estates.
The debate, which was joined by residents and community leaders from Frazier Park who oppose the project, ended more than three hours after it began Thursday.
Jammin'
Bakersfield Jam owner Stan Ellis had to wait until nearly 1 a.m. Friday to get the commission's blessing on the team's plans to launch a new phase of life on Norris Road.
Commissioners unanimously approved a request to allow the team to hold formal league games at its practice facility near Meadows Field airport.
Ellis promised to take care of traffic and safety in the surrounding neighborhood during game times.
Commissioner Ron Sprague called the improvements Ellis has made to the Jam property a "big lift" for the community.
