Laetitia
Nipomo Hills Alliance
Comments from John Janneck, the
Comments/Rebuttal
developer, or Vic Montgomery of RRM
Design Group at the community meeting
held at Laetitia Vineyards on April 28th,
2009.
1. Janneck states that Laetitia promises to
“fix” the roads and will do their “fair
share” to make sure that the roads are safe
as they handle the increased traffic on
Dana Foothill to support the new 102 one
acre home sites.
Traffic studies indicate that each new
home will generate about 10 car trips every
day. That totals over 1,000 additional trips
daily on our narrow country roads. This
does not include the extra trips from the
proposed 75 room dude ranch. All this
traffic will be on Dana Foothill, a road that
was not designed for this amount of traffic.
Janneck stated that property would have to
be condemned by the County to widen the
road, especially the dangerous “S” curve.
Has anyone informed the property owners
of this? Are they in favor of giving up their
land for this purpose?
Wider roads and more stoplights certainly
are not in keeping with the rural
surroundings that we appreciate about our
surroundings here in Nipomo.
2. Janneck states that 94% of Laetitia’s
land will remain as “open space” and will
be preserved in trust as such.
“Open space” can still be used for
additional agricultural purposes. Laetitia
could expand their vineyards, thus creating
even more demand on our dwindling water
supply. Also, the County allows additional
ag related buildings to be built on “open
space” including residences for farm
workers.
3. Janneck states that Laetitia’s intention is
to create a “wine lover’s enclave” thus
building the brand of the Laetitia label.
The logic of adding 102 residences
amongst the vineyards in order to market
wine is very difficult to comprehend; but
then we may not be sophisticated enough
to understand.
4. The DEIR calls for the destruction of
300 mature oak trees. Janneck states that
with his new plan only one oak tree will be
removed.
This is sleight of hand. He may not be
cutting down oak trees, but the lot owners
building their homes undoubtedly will be
cutting down oaks.
5. Janneck promised that there would
absolutely be no subsequent developments
on the property; i.e. golf courses, retail, or
industrial.
He conveniently left out the 75 room dude
ranch that is being planned in the future.
That adds more 75 toilets, 75 sinks, 75
showers and additional landscaping;
placing even more demands on our meager
water supply.
6. Montgomery states that the new
homeowner’s association will be
responsible for the maintenance of the
water system, sewer, roads, and common
landscaping.
Once the developer sells off the lots, they
will be long gone if the day comes when
the water wells dry up. Would the Nipomo
Hills Alliance then have legal recourse
against the Laetitia HOA? Who will be
responsible when the wells go dry?
Obviously the Janneck group does not
intend to be around should that happen.
They will have moved on to their next
“enclave” and will have no obligation to
fix the problems that they caused.
7. The two proposed settling ponds holding Would Janneck drink this wastewater?
waste water would have undergone
Even tertiary treatment cannot remove all
“tertiary” water treatment and will be
toxic contaminants.
completely safe to drink.
8. Janneck states that the Hydrogeologist,
Tim Cleath, and three others have found
that there is a reliable water supply for this
project and says that “water is not a
problem.”
Who are the other three? Where are their
reports? Tim Cleath was paid by Janneck
(not the County) to produce the optimistic
water report that was submitted with the
DEIR. We have documentation of other
overly optimistic Cleath reports, where
wells have eventually gone dry. Another
water report by Fugro is anticipated to be
competed within a month.
NiHA now has 12 documented cases of
local wells that have gone dry, had to dug
deeper, or have had diminished output. We
are already experiencing a serious lack of
water in this area. To stress the water
supply even more is completely short-sited
and irresponsible, if not criminal.
9. Laetitia currently as 14 wells. They
agreed to not use the two wells that are
close to Los Berros Creek for the
residential project.
If water is “no problem” as Janneck says,
why do they have to drill 14 wells to
irrigate the vineyards? Not using the two
wells by the creek for the residences is an
admission that they have done
environmental damage to the creek.
The Los Berros creek adjacent to Laetitia
did not have a drop of water in it during
this winter season, while the creek flowed
quite well above the Laetitia property. Will
the two wells continue to diminish the
creek flow as it has in the past? Janneck
states that water is “no problem.” Is the
water situation “no problem” for the
steelhead trout that were once abundant in
our creek?
10. Janneck indicates that only the shallow
wells go dry in our area.
Our state is currently in a serious drought
situation. However, this is not unusual for
our normally dry climate.
All of our wells are situated over fractured
shale. There is no aquifer in the Nipomo
Hills. Fractured shale provides a very
unpredictable source of water, which
occasionally goes dry suddenly; regardless
of the depth of the wells.
11. Janneck states that they donated $17
million to the Willow on/off ramp on 101
as a condition to complete the Woodlands
project.
That may be true, but it shows how
successful he has been in “buying off” the
County, thus avoiding having to make the
improvements himself. Would this happen
again in regard to the widening of Dana
Foothill?
12. Janneck promises to work “shoulder to Since the objectives of the two parties are
shoulder” with the Nipomo Hills neighbors completely at odds, this is impossible. He
to resolve all issues.
cannot market his development to us as
easily as they can market their wine.
We are dealing with some very real
problems that simply cannot be
mitigated; such as the lack of a reliable
water source. No matter how enticing
the promises may seem, this will fact
will simply not go away.