Silverado Hotel Hearing Testimony
January 23, 2003
The staff's own Negative Declaration says the Silverado Hotel is located in a floodway and a flood plain. The parking lot will be 6.7 feet under water during flood stage and that an Emergency Evacuation Flood Plan must be approved for the safety of the occupants. The project engineer report said "the proposed increase in blockage by the building is offset by the removal of the levee at the southwest corner of the property." This is a case of faulty logic. The "levee" in question is a series of piles of construction and roadway along a waterway that would not be permitted by today's standards. If the City approves the hotel to be built on an elevated land fill it will be allowing a new blockage in exchange for the old illegal blockage to the flow of floodwaters.
Each and every other construction project at your home or business, whether it is a remodel or an improvement, is required to comply with the current building codes and safety requirements. The City does not permit unsafe stairways to be rebuilt without the tread height or stair width to live up to present safer code requirements. If the water heater in your home needs replacing and it does not have a flexible gas supply line for safety in case there is an earthquake as required by the current code, the new replacement water heater must have the flex line in place in order to be approved by the city inspector. Yet in this case the developer is asking for just such an exception from current requirements.
This is one of the last parcels of greenbelt left in the City. The Commission missed a chance to designate Stanly Ranch as greenbelt and instead recommended it be classified as Ag. and allow an industrial use of the land with numerous wineries. We have a zoning called "Greenbelt" but if this zoning change is approved where is our greenbelt to be? The setting of a structure in a Greenbelt is inappropriate.
Recently the City turned down the Marriott Hotel project at the South end of town by Storage by George because of a City policy of feathering development along the edges of town. The City also said it wanted hotel developments in the down town area, not scattered along the periphery. If we grant this project we would be accused of showing deference to one person over another. Approval of this project would be basically unfair.
The setting of a structure in a floodway or a flood plain is inappropriate. Floodways are where the water jumps over it's banks and can have damaging velocities vs. a floodplain is where the water moves slower and spreads out to soak into the land. FEMA recommends not building in any areas likely to be flooded. And to justify the creation of an elevated obstacle in the path of flood waters by trading it for removal of an unapproved dike by today's standards along a waterway is also inappropriate. Most of all it is also unfair to hold a land holder on the south side of the City to a different standard than that of one on the north side of the City.
This particular parcel is next to a riparian hub for confluences of 3 creeks. Milliken creek is joined by a Class II tributary right on Altamura's property. These two creeks quickly join Sarco coming from the east and then they all converge on the Napa River close together. They drain the Silverado Trail area from Soda Canyon Road South and all of the Milliken gorge watershed. Sacro Creek drains much of the watershed along Monticello Rd to the ridgetop. The amount of water that makes its way to the River converges within the vicinity of the this property. That is why it is often the first to flood in the entire county.
Steelhead and Salmon use these creeks as a migratory path to their spawning gravels up in the headwaters. Altamura's project will destroy what little riparian landscape there is left in the City. The City rarely observes their own riparian setback by constantly letting developers apply for waivers and build in floodways. Haven't we seen enough of this type of development? This piece of property is so small, is highly susceptible to flooding and should be left in Greenbelt. The people support Greenbelts. This would give the salmon cool pools and clean water shaded by riparian cover and trees where the young fry can live out their first years of life before migrating to the ocean.
Our sympathies are with the owner. This is a difficult parcel to do anything with other than for planting grapes. This land is located at the beginning of one of the outstanding bicycle trails in the State. It is promoted in many bicycling magazines and many commercial eco tours ride it. Last year I talked with a driver of a chase van from Vermont that hosted a group of twenty "back East" riders up the Trail. She said Napa County is so lucky to have so many picturesque roadways. This location is much more suited for a City bicycle park than a commercial use so that people can safely off load their equipment away from the whizzing nearby traffic.
The corner of Silverado and Trancas should be kept rural, quiet, and country.
John Stephens
Chair