Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Ukiah City Council Faces Critical Decision on Annexation Balancing Conservation, Development, and Fire Safety in the Western Hills

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The Western Hills of the Ukiah Valley [Picture by Matt LaFever]

The Ukiah City Council voted unanimously last week to continue negotiating the purchase and annexation of a 40-acre parcel staff calls  “the linchpin” of a deal to acquire hundreds of acres for conservation and public use.

Two years ago, the city annexed over 700 acres in the western hills just off Redwood Avenue in a deal with David Hull of D&J Investments LLC. While most of the land would be dedicated to nature and the public, 54 acres, or seven parcels, remain available to Hull to develop up to one primary residence and an accessory dwelling unit for each parcel. Now, another 84 acres have been added to the annexation project. Hull wants to keep the right to develop three parcels on 15 of the 40 acres that the city would buy. The Planning Commission recommended allowing development on only one parcel, which Sean White, the city’s director of water and sewer, reported would be a deal breaker.

If the city does not get the 40-acre parcel according to Hull’s terms, there will be no public access to the landlocked preserve. White said the purchase would not have an impact on the city’s general fund, though the city would contribute $200,000 from its water fund to buy the property. White wants the city to have control of a significant aquifer in those hills. Adventist Health and the Ukiah Valley Trail Group are each contributing $50,000 to the purchase price.

But neighbors question the wisdom of allowing more development in the western hills, which are at high risk for wildfire. Redwood Avenue would continue to be the only access for future residents, which worries neighbors thinking about nightmare evacuation scenarios. Matt Keizer, the city’s Fire Marshall, assured the council that any homes in the area would be built to a strict standard for fire safety, including non-flammable building materials and special venting that expands to prevent embers from entering the home. “What these are all called in the building code are the WUI standard, which is the wildland-urban interface standard,” he said. “All these homes that we’re talking about here, that standard would be applicable.”

The city thinks it can do a better job than the county at maintaining fire breaks and keeping development to a minimum. But during public comment, Ukiah resident Karen Rosen urged the council to consider other options and not get pressured into making a deal. The western hills annexation has been controversial for years because of the development option.

“You cannot ignore that you are giving away 15 acres of annexed property,” she said. “It doesn’t take an appraiser to understand that 40 acres of undeveloped hillside high fire zone county property is not comparable to 15 acres of developable with three three dwelling units and three ADU’s in an annexed situation. Why are we giving this? Because the person who’s selling it is saying no deal to the recommendation of the Planning Commission? No deal to one unit and one AD U? I say walk away. We can do something better here. I’m willing to help raise the money to pay for the whole 40 acres.”

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Alex de Grassi, the city planning commissioner who suggested limiting the development, told the Council that he thinks Hull’s plan is not viable anyway. “Given the current situation with fire danger and all that,” he began, “Who’s going to insure these properties if people decide to develop them? How is it that we’re getting manipulated by one property owner in this deal? If he’s going to get $300,000 plus one 15-acre development property, what’s not good about that for him?… I think we’re looking at three things. We’re looking at fire safety, we’re looking at access for a very great cause, which is development of this property for trail groups. And we’re also looking at, is this viable? Is this what the Fire Council looks at? This does not square with the Ukiah General Plan. So I just don’t see it making any sense. What I see is one person with a certain amount of private equity leverage, lording it over the city.” 

Hull spoke last, saying not one of the parcels that’s already gotten the green light to offer for development is in escrow. He also doubts future buyers would build  ADUs, noting the scarcity of these living units in the existing neighborhood. He said he’s already tied up $5 million in the property, including paving three-quarters of a mile on Redwood Avenue and extensive vegetation management. He didn’t sound like he was willing to budge on his desire to build three houses in exchange for the linchpin property.

“One parcel doesn’t work for me,” he declared. “I have ways of making some money with that, and I’m getting a little old. I’m getting very close to retirement, and I can’t lose a lot of  money at this stage of my life. So I will continue to try to figure out a way to make money.”

He hinted that if the property stays under county control, rather than being annexed by the city, the county zoning will allow him to build far more than three houses.

“I can tell you what I know,” he said. “R-1H is the new zoning. It was always R-5. You couldn’t develop more than five acres. So I’ve designed everything I’ve done up there with nothing being less than five acres. There’s ten-acre parcels, there’s nine-acre parcels, there’s going to be five-acre parcels…We’re going in and taking the majority of  the underbrush and the vegetation out to make sure it’s fire-safe to begin with…The insurance is still possible up there. It’s not going to be cheap. Nothing about this up there is cheap. It will hopefully draw more doctors to town, more professionals that are looking for that type of housing, and I think a lot of people would admit that we have a shortage here  in the valley of some of that type of housing.”

The Council voted unanimously to authorize City Manager Sage Sangiacomo to negotiate and execute the purchase of the final property in the Western Hills annexation project.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. Our one landmark. That mountain. In her shadow we live and die, and we seek to tame her. Why not cherish her, beautify her? Our short minded goals of trails and development will BOTH bring about her demise. Her waters will fail, her sides will crumble, her face will be scarred with buildings and trails and porta potties, never to be undone. She is what shelters our town from the brutal afternoon sun, her runoff is what flows through and under and over our streets. Can we be so ignorant? All of us? I don’t need to walk on her, I don’t need doctors that will only move here if they can have a fancy house that surveys all. I need to hope beyond hope that somethings, some mountains will be valued for their aesthetic beauty alone. I need to hope that we understand this mountain backdrop of our lives will not be the soothing overseer of our lives if it’s covered in pavement and fire safe buildings. Little by little we are nibbling her away …..

  2. The new information. Control of a Aquifer? Ground water in the mountain? Those canyons are based on rock. Some of the area….is writen up, in old mudslide reports and considered very high in mud slide possibilities. In all the articles I didn’t realize the water aspect of this endeavor would tap Aquifers? Look at some places in Spanish Canyon area. Moved or abandoned. Wondering where water to supply households was coming from. I maybe wrong but the initial statement years ago was tanks and conservation tactics. So salmon steelhead spring fed creeks will be
    safeguarded in this whole process? Broomhilda is etherealilty correct in the concerns. Check mudslide reports and creek water shed sources. It’s all available for public viewing. But by the article, this is already a done deal with supervisors and or city council. Too much money already spent for a reason. The meetings and articles seem a pretense of a choice that was already made.

  3. The NIMBYs were out in full force at this meeting. They all cry “fire safety” but this deal actually improves the fire safety for Ukiah! It shows how illogical the landed gentry class can be. I think what these boomers really want is to somehow magically stop all development from taking place forever and ever. Damn things like property rights and due process, except of course if it was their own property, then I’d bet their tune would change real quick!

    • Progress is good if it’s a benefit to the town as a whole and is feasible to maintain fire safety. Many of other areas in same type of developments are already loosing insurance as we type. That is a fact. Lawyers and doctors are intelligent. Costs do matter to them too.

  4. The quest for revenue will have the city or the county grovelling to developers. And the greedy developers love the position they are in to take full advantage of empty civic coffers. Nothing good can come from development of such steep brush covered land. Haven’t we seen what fires are like these days? Leave the steep west side hills alone!

    • This is what happens when a community spends more than it earns. The locals have left the county and city with no choice but to find new revenue sources to fill in the debt gaps. Either pay more in taxes from the current land owners or expand the community to help reduce the debt burden.

  5. I live on the west END of mill street
    The sun sets at like 3:00 there. FYI
    Moldy AF.
    Fun.
    Let’s build ringstones. A ceremonial tor. Wtf not. Let’s proceed to the top in prayer and resonance. Let’s initiate our young people by hiking to the U after fasting for 3 days. I’m down. Time to put our monies where our mouths are…

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Sarah Reith
Sarah Reith
Sarah Reith is a radio and print reporter working in Mendocino and Humboldt counties, focusing on local politics and environmental news.

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