Dear Environmental Coordinator, 

This letter is in regard to the application for expansion of the Waldorf  School on Empire Grade, and its recently completed Environmental Impact Report (EIR). 

We have several concerns about this project, and the EIR. 

In too many cases recently, such as the Santa Cruz Biotechnology facility on 
Back Ranch Road, and RMC’s proposed expansion of its limestone quarry and 
cement plant, we see projects piece-mealed, so that while each increment may 
not seem like it has much impact, the cumulative impact is huge. We feel very 
strongly that the long-range development should be considered as a whole 
before each piece of it is approved. 

The Waldorf School has two additional properties that it controls, a 7-acre 
piece it owns and a leasehold on another 10. We have reason to suspect that 
the school administration has a long-range goal of greatly increasing the 
number of students at the school, including adding a high school. 
Historically, the school has not only expanded, but exceeded its permitted 
number of students. We see no reason to believe that this present expansion 
application is the conclusion of their long-range plans. 

We also have concerns about the impact on the neighborhood and on Empire 
Grade from the present expansion application to 245 students, and certainly 
would be alarmed if the number of students grew to 300, 400, or even 500, as 
would perhaps be permitted given the present density (245 students on 6 
acres). This type of development is more suited to an urban area. 

Regarding the EIR, we think it underestimates both the number of cars 
entering the school at present and the speed of the traffic going by at 
Empire Grade. Rather than the 3.4 students per car stated in the EIR, one 
observer has found that there actually are only 2.05 students per car, 
counting the school’s bus. That means that this proposed expansion will 
increase the number of vehicles to around 120-125, including staff. 

Many drivers are in the habit of exceeding the speed limit, going down Empire 
at 55-60 mph. Having a large number of fast-moving cars turning into and out 
of the school creates a very hazardous condition there that isn’t adequately 
addressed by the EIR. 

Another area of concern is the water supply and the impact on surrounding 
properties. Right now the school is trucking in drinking water because the 
water is considered of such poor quality. How will this expansion affect the 
water and that of their neighbors? The EIR doesn’t adequately address this. 
We’re also concerned about the precedent of bringing in water by truck so 
that parcels may be developed. 

Finally, we have concerns over the wastewater disposal. The school already 
has seven septic tanks in use. How many more will it need with this 
expansion, and will there be a serious problem? This matter needs more 
research. 

Thank you for your consideration of these matters. 

Respectfully yours, 

Marilyn Hummel
Corresponding Secretary

31 August 1999
 

Board of Supervisors
Santa Cruz County
701 Ocean Avenue, Room 500
Santa Cruz CA 95060
 

Dear Supervisors:

RMC has submitted, one by one, a number of permit requests to Santa Cruz
County's Planning Department for:

- Test holes, below Smith Grade, on recently acquired residentially-zoned
properties
- Additional test holes, above and below Smith Grade, also in a residential area
- More test holes, in an area zoned residential & designated as a buffer, below Smith Grade
- Major expansion of the cement plant in Davenport
- Most recently, a reapplication for new quarrying activities below Smith Grade

We have also heard that last year other test holes were drilled, above the
now exhausted San Vicente Quarry.

As you know, the residents of Bonny Doon are much alarmed at RMC's
activities:  we are dismayed by the immediate disruption, fearful for the
perhaps not-so-future devastation -- and for our property values.

In our experience, even medium-sized companies have long-term future plans,
and we believe that RMC does, too.  So it seems reasonable to expect that
RMC should submit its requests, for the inseparable quarry and cement plant
projects, to the Planning Department as one package, to be reviewed as a
whole.

With  these considerations, we ask you to require RMC to present all its
permit requests in a single parcel, no more frequently than every five
years, with the further proviso that the County's Planning Department will
consider such requests only once in five years and that they be made
available for a community hearing.  We feel that this requirement still
gives RMC an advantage in long-range planning and the ability to be
flexible.  But it also gives the County and the Bonny Doon community a
chance to review matters which directly and vitally affect our well-being.
 

Sincerely,
 

Miriam Beames, Corresponding Secretary 

5 December 1999
 

Planning Commission
County Government Center
701 Ocean Street, Room 400
Santa Cruz CA 95060

        Re:     John R. & Brenda H. Stephenson Application, permit #97-0648
 

Dear Commissioners:

This is the third winter in which the Stephensons' biomedical facility has
graced our coastal terraces and their goats' excrement has washed down,
through several channels for surface runoff, across neighbors' yards, and
into the ocean.

During these years the number of goats has increased and, as might be
expected, so have the remarkable fecal coliform counts.

The Rural Bonny Doon Association considers this a most inappropriate time
to grant the Stephensons license to pollute further.  We do trust that they
will be required to fence the Scaroni riparian corridor and begin to
protect one watercourse from goat manure.

In addition, we ask that staff inspect the pollution reducing measures
required by your directive of 24 August, to determine that they have been
effectively implemented.

With our thanks for your consideration,
 

Sincerely,
 
 

Miriam Beames
Corresponding Secretary
 

21 October 1999
 

Board of Supervisors
County of Santa Cruz
701 Ocean Street, Room 500
Santa Cruz CA 95060

        Re:     John R. & Brenda H. Stephenson Application, permit #97-0648
 

Dear Supervisors:

The Rural Bonny Doon Association opposes this permit.  We feel that the
construction is inappropriate & excessive for a private equestrian
facility.  In fact, we wonder whether the proposal may be a subterfuge for
an expansion of the biomedical goat facility.

But whether a palace for horses or affordable housing for goats, the stable
project is, we affirm, too large to be considered in isolation from the
entire Santa Cruz Biotechnology Master Plan.  In addition, the fact that
the Stephensons' private residence is located on their company's property
mandates that their personal construction plans cannot be separated from
their corporate enterprise:  the land is an integral whole, and its uses
must conform to a single concept.

We thank you for your attention to these concerns, which we hope you will
share.
 

Sincerely,
 
 

Miriam Beames
Corresponding Secretary
 

22 June 1999
 

Planning Commission
County Government Center
701 Ocean Street, Room 400
Santa Cruz CA 95060

        Re:     John R. & Brenda H. Stephenson Application, permit #97-0648
 

Dear Commissioners:

The Rural Bonny Doon Association opposes this permit.  We feel that the
construction is inappropriate & excessive for a private equestrian facility.

In addition, we wonder whether the proposal may be a subterfuge for an
expansion of the biomedical goat facility.

We thank you for your attention to this concern, which we hope you will share.
 

Sincerely,
 
 

Miriam Beames
Corresponding Secretary
 

9 September 1999

Planning Commission
County Government Center
701 Ocean Street, Room 400
Santa Cruz CA 95060
 

Dear Commissioners:

On behalf of the many Bonny Doon residents who live in the Empire Grade
area above Felton, the Rural Bonny Doon Association protests Granite
Construction's request to double -- from 20 to 40 -- the number of nights
it can operate the Felton Quarry.

Since the county requires dump trucks to exit and enter the quarry via
Empire Grade at night (to protect Felton residents), this means a lot more
noise and traffic in Bonny Doon.  In addition, quarry neighbors complain
that nighttime weather conditions trap the emissions that fume from the
quarry, making for some smelly -- as well as noisy -- nights.

With these considerations, we ask you to deny Granite Construction's
request and preserve the local residents' right to sleep in peace. 
 

Sincerely,
 

Miriam Beames, Corresponding Secretary 

cc:  Ted Benhari, Chair

1 November 1999
 

Board of Supervisors
Santa Cruz County
701 Ocean Street, Room 500
Santa Cruz  CA  95060
 

Dear Supervisors:

The Rural Bonny Doon Association is grateful to you for your work to create
Santa Cruz County's proposed forest practice rules and for your diligence
in sending them with active, personal representation to the California
Board of Forestry.  Surely, it was not for lack of effort on your part that
the most important rules were rejected.  We also thank you for crafting, as
a corollary to this rejection, zoning ordinances to control commercial
logging, and for the County Planning Department's impressive presentation
of them to the California Coastal Commission.  The Coastal Commission's
approval is, we believe, a powerful vindication of your rightness.

We now encourage you to complete the task and enact the stricter set of
zoning ordinances that you developed when the Board of Forestry denied the
forest practice rules, and later sent to be approved by the Coastal
Commission.  We have stated our reasons for supporting them in the past, to
you, to the Board of Forestry, and to the Coastal Commission.  These
reasons are simple common sense, and our support for them continues.

We have two added requests:  that you make permanent the temporary
ordinance to create a fifty foot no-cut zone around streams, to prevent
erosion and so to give coho & steelhead (as well as our drinking water) a
chance; and that you approve restrictions on helicopter logging, to avoid
slopes so steep that subsequent erosion is inevitable, and to protect
terrified neighbors in residential areas.

Again, we thank you for a great deal of work, for a cause vitally important
to our beautiful, vulnerable County.

Sincerely,
 
 

Miriam Beames
Corresponding Secretary