The El Dorado County (EDC) Planning Department recently held a public meeting where a local Environmental Consultant presented an overview of the California Environmental Quality Act, commonly known as CEQA. This was a very informative review of how the EDC Planning Department can work within the guidelines of California law requiring CEQA reviews to uncover project environmental impacts in a wide range of areas. One outcome of a CEQA review could be a determination that the county require a developer to do a comprehensive environmental impact report, or EIR. This process is done through independent third-parties, hired by the developer, and can be as comprehensive as the situation requires. If you have read anything we have published prior, you know that we have a wide range of concerns which an EIR would investigate. We are strongly requesting EDC to require this EIR process in order to give an independent and thorough review of these issues.
It is our belief that this process will uncover the significant safety concerns that we have for both current residents, as well as patients of these proposed facilities. At a minimum an EIR would provide independent opinion of these concerns and mitigations that should be taken.
The presentation today reinforced that these community concerns can be very important triggers to help our county planning department understand the areas where deeper investigation is required. These concerns can raised by anyone who might be affected, including you! I encourage you to understand the concerns we are raising with EDC, and if you think we have missed any, let us, and our EDC representatives, know so we can ensure all areas of concern are investigated.
Rescue Deer Valley will continue to let our county representatives know that an EIR is a minimum next step prior to granting any permits, so we can all get an independent, and comprehensive, review of the environmental impacts of these two commercial facilities being proposed for Deer Valley Court. Stay tuned as we await developer action on this request.
Rescue Deer Valley! 