Open letter from Stevinson resident Robby Avilla to Supervisor Diedre Kelsey and Assistant Planning Director Bill Nicholson

As I have noted in letters to the editor of the Merced Sun-Star, and also before the Hilmar/Stevinson MAC Board, I am greatly disturbed by the process that Merced County used to expand the Stevinson SUDP (Specific Urban Design Plan).

This expansion is only being created to enable the Stevinson Ranch developers to attach a 3,880 unit gated community onto a town with a population of 400 people. Without the development there were no plans by Merced County government in place to expand the growth boundaries of the town of Stevinson.

The two of you, Supervisor Kelsey and Planner Bill Nicholson, both have said numerous times that you wanted to give something to the residents of Stevinson if this development were to be built, and so you wanted the developers to provide sewer and water to the residents of Stevinson. This was both of your selling points for including the development within an expanded SUDP for Stevinson.

I feel that you led the citizens of Stevinson astray with those comments. First, the sewer installation will be a sewer trunk line. Local residents cannot hook into a sewer trunk line. There are only 34 homes along the road where the line is to be installed. A sewer trunk line needs at least 50% capacity before it can flow. The current homes, plus the school, would not even come close to making that trunk line flow. That sewer trunk line will only be used by developers when they create even more residential development in the town of Stevinson. It will never be used by current residents for their own use as you professed that it would. Likewise, the water lines would support such a small contingency of Stevinson's population that it is all but useless to the community as a whole. Merquin School's water is continually tested. It has tested clean for drinking and they would be the main user on that line. Your idea of providing Stevinson with these amenities does not hold up considering the increase in traffic congestion that all of us would have to put up with for years before we would get new roads. I believe that both of you knew that the sewer trunk line would not be usable to the current Stevinson residents and was only being installed for further development, and also that you knew how small a population would be served by the water lines. So, I believe that both of you were not really interested in providing these amenities to the residents of Stevinson, but, instead, were trying to soften the blow of the astoundingly large development to the residents of our community.

MAC Board Chairman, Peter Stavrianoudakis, came to our group, the Stevinson Citizen's Group, saying that the Kelley family requested that Supervisor Kelsey not let him lead meetings in Stevinson anymore. When we questioned him why this could be, he said, "The Kelley family thinks that I am against their development. I am not against their development, I am just against the process that Merced County is using to get it in." Supervisor Kelsey, within one month you removed Mr. Stavrionoudakis from the board completely. You would not give a reason for his removal to the other members of the MAC Board, saying that they serve at your discretion. I feel like the MAC Board needs to be told that the Kelley family made that request of you and then just a short time later you did in fact remove him from the Board.

MAC Chairman, Peter Stavrianoudakis, requested on three separate occasions at MAC meetings that a guidance package should be provided to the Hilmar/Stevinson MAC Board for the Stevinson Ranch/Gallo Lakes Development. Mr. Nicholson, you replied that none had ever been presented to the board for comment and, you also stated, before the Board and the residents in attendance, that you would provide one. You never did so. The Hilmar/Stevinson MAC Board has never had a guidance package to comment on about the Stevinson Lakes/Gallo Ranch proposed development. However, the MAC Board was recently given a guidance package to comment on about the Turlock Golf Course Development. They are both privately funded developments. Why would a guidance package be necessary on one development and not the other?

Lastly, and most importantly, every single meeting of the steering committee that formed the enlarged Stevinson SUDP was held in violation of the Brown Act. Nothing was posted in our local newspaper about the formation of the steering committee or the meeting times and dates. Nothing was posted on our post office or any buildings in town of the meeting dates. There were no fliers sent to local residents. The meetings were held in the Stevinson Ranch Clubhouse with no agenda posted on the door.

Supervisor Kelsey, I work within the land use arena in Merced County and many of the people that I work with are staunch defenders of you. You support them and so they want to turn a blind eye as to what you have done in Stevinson. I feel differently. I do not expect them to understand what we have gone through in Stevinson, but I do expect you to right your wrongs. You have touted the Stevinson Ranch/Gallo Lakes Development on two separate occasions at the Board of Supervisor meetings, saying that you think it is a "good project". You made that statement to the Board before a final plan had been drawn and before an EIR has even been completed. You used the Stevinson Development as an excuse to keep projects ongoing during the General Plan update process.

The above issues lead me to believe that the two of you have worked in cooperation to enable the owners and developers of the Stevinson Ranch/Gallo Lakes Development to have an unfair advantage in bringing their project and an unlawfully created SUDP plan before the Merced County Planning Commission and Merced County Board of Supervisors. I believe that you knowingly led residents to believe they would benefit from amenities they will not be receiving, you tried to control the local MAC Board's opposition to the process that Merced County was using by eliminating it's Chairman at the developing family's request, you unlawfully kept the steering committee meetings quiet and you did not give the Hilmar/Stevinson MAC Board the proper paperwork.

I am sending this letter via email and hard copy. I am requesting that respective to your particular duties you:

1. Write a letter to the community of Stevinson stating that local residents would not be allowed sewer usage because of flow issues with the development's sewer trunk lines. I want it stated that these lines are for the use of future residential development and not for the use of current resident's waste. I feel that the citizens of Stevinson deserve clarification on this issue.
2. Write a letter to the Hilmar/Stevinson MAC Board stating why Chairman Peter Stavrianoudakis was ejected from the board. Bear in mind that Frank Amaral has been allowed to remain on the board as one of two representatives from Stevinson even though he rarely attends a meeting.
3. I request that the Merced County Planning Department send a guidance package for comment to the Hilmar/Stevinson MAC Board regarding the Stevinson Ranch/Gallo Lakes Development.
4. I request that the Merced County Planning Department scrap current plans of enlarging Stevinson's SUDP and start from scratch with a process that is legal, publicized and will allow the residents of Stevinson a voice in the size and scope of their own town. A steering committee might be a good solution for some situations, but I believe that when you are considering taking a town from a population of 400 to 19,000 residents it is of utmost importance for the whole town to feel they have representation. This was done in Hilmar and needs to also be done in Stevinson.
5. I request that you form a separate MAC Board for Stevinson. I request that you make that Board represent all members of our community, with members who are both pro and against this development.

I am emailing a copy of this letter to concerned parties so that they know exactly what my grievances and requests are.

Thank you, Robby Avilla