St. Helena City Council to hold final Hunter hearing Wednesday | #citycouncil

The St. Helena City Council will hold its final hearing on the Hunter project’s tentative map and environmental impact report at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Vintage Hall.

This is the last hearing allowed under California law, so the council is expected to take an up-or-down vote on the 87-unit housing project.

Applicants want to subdivide a property behind the levee and build 51 single-family homes, 25 multi-family units, and 11 accessory dwelling units.

Even if the council approves the tentative map and EIR on Wednesday, the developers won’t be able to build right away. The City Council would still have to approve a final map and an affordable housing agreement, the Planning Commission would have to approve a use permit and design review, and the city would have to award building permits.

But neighbors who have opposed the project since it was announced in 2010 see Wednesday’s hearing as their best chance to stop it from moving ahead. Lawyers for both sides seem poised to sue the city depending on how the council votes, and state officials who are scrutinizing St. Helena’s proposed housing element have expressed interest in the project’s timeline.

As of Tuesday morning, 983 people had signed a Change.org petition urging the council to vote down the project.

That petition, along with related online posts on NextDoor, drew a rebuke from city officials who issued a detailed press release May 26 responding to “misleading information disseminated through various online channels.”

The press release, which appeared Thursday in the St. Helena Star, triggered a final round of letters to the editor criticizing the city statement and reiterating arguments against the project.

Opponents say the project would hinder evacuations during large-scale emergencies and put the new homes at risk of flooding if the levee is inundated by floodwaters. They’re also concerned about water consumption and the lack of detail about how the project will comply with the city’s requirement that 20% of the units be affordable.

The project’s environmental report found that the only “significant and unavoidable” impact of the project would be on “vehicle miles traveled,” the new metric the state uses to measure traffic levels.

If the council approves the tentative map and certifies the EIR, it will have to adopt a “statement of overriding considerations” explaining how the project’s benefits outweigh its impact.