Speakers - 22 Nov 2022 Meeting
On 22 November 2022, four residents of the Woodfield subdivision spoke to the city council about the Doherty Drive Extension project. They were all against it.
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Speaker #1 was the new president of the HOA. She talked about the letter from the previous president to the council against the project. She concurs completely. The community is strongly against the project because of concerns about traffic safety, safety of school children, home values, crime, and the loss of mature green space that is needed for wildlife habitat. She is also concerned about flooding and damage to the environment.
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Speaker #2 was a wildlife biologist and naturalist. In her area, she has seen several threatened species that will be directly impacted by the road. For example, the caracara bird, blue herons, tri- colored herons, and a bald eagle, which has been sited recently.
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Speaker #3 was an HOA board member. He critiqued the Friday Memo that had been sent out in support of the road project. He was especially critical of the traffic studies which are almost four years old. He pointed out a lot of changes in traffic patterns that have occurred in the last couple of years, especially with regard to all the delivery vehicles that we now have, and that would use the road as a shortcut. He mentioned several specific criticisms of the traffic study. He asked if emergency vehicles will be using the new extensions as a shortcut. He mentioned an accident involving a car and a child on a bicycle that happened at the corner of Heritage Oaks and Minton. He is concerned about crime and home values. He said he has not spoken to a single person who is in support of the road.
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Speaker #4 also criticized the traffic study that was included in the Friday Memo. She also said
that the memo indicated it might mitigate flooding. But she pointed out that if there's a way to mitigate the flooding it can be done without building an entire road. She described this project as a solution in search of a problem, with a lot of unintended negative consequences. She also pointed out it wasn't appropriate to be spending the city's money to only benefit one area (Heritage Oaks).