elnoka in the news!
April 15 Kenwood press:
Letter to the editor, press-democrat, april 6:
elnoka site would be better left as wildland, not housing
Editor: Burbank Housing plans to construct 275 units on the Elnoka site near Oakmont (“Senior development plans to debut, March 21). These plans do not address the obvious and potentially fatal issue of increasing the population in a fire-prone area. The infrastructure in this part of Santa Rosa does not support the safe evacuation of the present population. During the Glass Fire evacuation in 2020, Highway 12 was gridlocked as was the Melita/Montgomery corridor. We evacuated but could only exit our home because another driver was kind enough to let us in.
To allow the building of 275 units, only 74 of which address the need for affordable rentals, and therefore increase the population by roughly 500 people, is irresponsible and dangerous. It does not have to happen. It would be much better for the community and for the environment to leave Elnoka as wildland.
—Kerry Granshaw, Santa Rosa
OVA Board agreed to support new Elnoka housing project—20 months before developer’s plans were made public…
Take action!
Summary: In March 2024—20 months before Burbank’s development plans were made public—the Oakmont Village Association (OVA) Board agreed in writing to support an “approximately 272-unit” housing development on the adjacent 69-acre Elnoka wildland, in exchange for Burbank’s constructing an emergency exit road from Stonebridge Rd. in Oakmont and across Elnoka wildland to Melita Road.
Not until the developer’s plans were made public—just before Thanksgiving 2025—could Oakmont residents review the plans and grasp the full impact of what the OVA Board had agreed to support. Residents no longer can count on the OVA Board to represent our concerns to the city planning department…we must do that ourselves.
Back in 2021, the OVA Board played a strong role in opposing the last housing development on Elnoka, representing residents’ concerns about wildfire hazard, evacuation safety, regional traffic congestion, and quality of life. See 2021 OVA Board concerns about last developmentUnfortunately, the current project fails to adequately address these same community concerns. What you will hear from Burbank and the OVA Board is the developer’s spin on the project.
This website aims to provide a different perspective, to expose some of the potentially significant aspects of this Elnoka project THAT COULD IMPACT OUR SAFETY AND QUALITY OF LIFE and how we might address them.
Board’s legal agreement with developer, signed March 2024, now commits Board to back project. Read agreement here
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