SDA + Beer Hall - Street Improvements = PC Agenda

July 15th Planning Commission Meeting was an eye opener for all who were there.

The SDA Church and the Fire House may have Blue Mountain Beer Company (Microbrewery) and pub or Beer Hall for a new neighbor. Or at least that is what the applicant Gene Hays hopes. The lot at 22587 Barton Road ( Assessor's Parcel Number 1178-011-03) is adjacent to those existing establishments and organizations and abuts the block wall of a residential neighborhood.

In the proposal there is a limit on the size of the band to 3 jazz musicians. However no one reported if the music and party noise including guests, had to be contained entirely inside the building. The applicant said, "everyone supported the idea". Who is this everyone? Were there members of the SDA Church there in support? Were there neighbors to the wall in support? Were the parents of walking students and youth in support? Yes the SDA operate a school on the site don't they?

Will the ABC board issue additional service licenses when GT already is by their standard saturated with ABC Licenses?

Jacobsen himself went before the Planning Commission with some badly prepared mish mash of drawings and presentations to try to push forward the building of the Stater Bro's Market. He wants the Planning Commission to approve the revision that will allow construction without immediate road and signal upgrades prior to construction or occupancy for Stater Brothers. The plan was approved because or in part because the "City wanted a unified development not a piece meal development". So shouldn't he have to start from square one if he is now doing a piece meal development?

Again the old "Everyone is in support line" has been tried. Not everyone is happy with the prospects of Diesel fumes and noise adjacent to their residential neighborhood as the delivery area abuts them very close. No one should be happy about the non resolution for the traffic around the GT Elementary School and the needed changes to the road and signaling prior to an increase in traffic in the area.

Include in the problem that the Code says a block wall can only be 5 feet above a retaining wall. Well for Mr. Jacobsen and the Neighborhood being affected this is insufficient to keep Crooks and children, on one side, and Truck Smoke and Noise On the Other. The nature of the property and the local geograpy and the intended purpose of a wall don't fit well together.

Mr. Jacobsen should have done a better job of being ready for his presentation. Facts, and good drawings would help more than tears and pleas.

Finally, the desire to put large signs so they can be seen from the freeway was also on the agenda. The City Code and past decisions have been against this very thing. The issue is that signs are ugly. Well ugly unless you spend 57,000.00 for one and 35,000.00 for the other and your name is GT City. Or No parking signs all over, and those Up the Hill Shopping Signs, or the Street Sweeping Signs and so forth and so forth all over the streets of GT.

So what does the city get for putting an ugly sign on its property? It is time for a HIGH PRICE like a half a million a year for one sign along the freeway? I'd say yes to Ugly Sign and No to a Beer Garden. Are you with me here folks?

The old members are returning to service on the Planning Commission. Good luck folks. The City Attorney J. Harper was there to coach you to speak only legal issues this time. Interesting, is he expecting yet another law suit? Gee Ya Think?

How about a Beer Hall or Beer Garden down on the Flood Plain and have all the traffic going and coming into it via La Cadena under the rail road trellis that floods on a regular basis? There may be a way to make that work.