Developers tout Johnson Lane project's perks

The house was packed and neighbors kept developers on their toes Tuesday during a meeting concerning Jobs View, a proposed 404-home residential project on 300 acres between Stephanie Way and Johnson Lane.

Developer Bill Merrill said the project will help solve traffic issues in the area by improving seven strategic intersections and paving more than a mile of Heybourne Road, which will ultimately be a collector.

"The traffic flow will be better at build-out than it is now," he said.

The project requires the transfer of 339 development rights, resulting in the preservation of between 250 and 300 acres of agricultural land in perpetuity. More than 50 percent of the land will be dedicated as open space, complete with eight-foot jogging paths, trees and benches, he said.

"We're trying to purchase development rights on prime agricultural land in the view corridor," Merrill said. "And we'll be controlling the floodwaters now dumped on neighboring properties. Flooding will be handled on site by building detention basins and sedimentation ponds."

Included in the project are 304 single-family units on 12,000-square-foot lots priced at between $519,000 and $735,000. Another 100 townhomes would be priced for work-force housing at around $235,000 and 34 single-family homes would be priced at $325,000 based on the current market, according to information provided by R.O. Anderson Engineering.

The project includes five acres for neighborhood commercial, which Merrill said will offer more services locally and mean fewer trips on Highway 395.

Currently zone forest and range with 19-acre lots, the project will require a master plan amendment and that could be "tough," said Community Development Director Mitch Dion.

Merrill said he hopes to acquire the necessary county approvals by December and forward the project for construction drawings over the next year. Excavation could start as soon as the spring of 2008 and he expects a six-year buildout, based on the market over the past six years.

Neighbor Diane Alsopian said she was dead set against the project.

"We already have too many houses for the roads," she said. "Our homeowner's association is passing a petition around, to stop the project."

Steven Vandersluis said noise and traffic are two of the issues that have neighbors upset.

"I feel frustrated. We've been through these types of meetings before, when the whole crowd was opposed to a development," he said. "The next day it passed. Developers just go through the motions."

n Susie Vasquez can be reached at svasquez@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 211.