Letter: Impact for anyone along Granada, Westberry or Schnoor

Currently Berry Homes is wanting to build a 93-unit apartment on Fairfield and Westberry. This is right across the river where the promised bridge never got built. The apartment complex will have two and three bedrooms available and can handle families. The people that bought north of the river in Home Ranch were promised a bridge on Westberry and a park, neither of which got completed.

The apartment is a bad idea for the following reasons:

To the west of the land it is already zoned for medium density and high density. The city spent a lot of time planning a city and now they are wanting to change their plan. Why plan a city out if you have no desire to stick with a plan when a builder shows up and wants to put in apartments?

It is a bait and switch from Berry who said, “Hey buy a house here we are going to put in more homes over here and now they want to put in a business. Ninety-three units at $1,400 a month will net them much more than if they build houses there. Some people say that we need mixed housing in Madera and we will have that west of the current proposal. Cities that are successful with mixed type of housing create a plan and stick to it. It does not happen by accident. Currently, we have lots of places zoned for apartments in much better locations.

Currently, we do not have enough homes like are in Home Ranch on the market. I know two couples that wanted to buy in Madera but not enough inventory exists and ended up off of Herndon and 99. Houses sell very fast and the neighborhood is made up of many races, religions and ages. We need to build houses that will attract people with high to middle class incomes.

You keep looking for your particular store to build here or fast food chain; they are looking for that median income to be present in the town.

Lincoln Elementary, John Adams Elementary and Howard Elementary have too many students. Where will these students go and how will they end up shifting school zones to accommodate that many children? If you have children that go to those schools, it could definitely impact what school they go to or their class size. How many more portables will we need?

The apartment is at the end of a dead end road. It is a 25-minute walk to a grocery store. Shouldn’t apartment complexes be located close to schools, stores or items that people can easily access? If they drive, can Cleveland handle the extra traffic? How about the foot traffic on Granada, which is an accident waiting to happen? Or how about the cars on Granada trying to get Lincoln in the morning?

The city did not do an environmental study, although the apartment complex is going to be right on the river. Nor did they do a traffic impact study. I guess they are unaware of what it is like trying to get down Granada at 7:30 in the morning.

I am not anti-apartments and lived in them quite a bit. Many good people live in them, but the placement of this complex is a bad idea. If you are tired of developers trying to make these happen, wondering why we do not have more businesses and are concerned for the west side schools, make your voice heard. Email rholt@cityofmadera.com. It should only take a minute and tell them that you think it is a bad idea.

If nobody says anything, the project will go forward. The Planning Commission has a meeting Aug. 13 and your opinions via email will be part of their report. Thanks.

— Tim Riche,

Madera