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Mountain Springs Open House Attracts Many

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Developers of the proposed Mountain Springs community unveiled their latest, scaled-back version of the residential plan to the public Tuesday and Wednesday. Testing the waters again, developers are seeking the public for comment through a questionnaire handed out during the open houses.

From all indications, project manager Ron Kopf said, res ponce was good. “The majority of the people we talked to felt that we´ve spent a lot of time and work on it, and that we´re headed in the right direction,” Kopf said. “But we still have a lot of work left to do and we want to have more input from people as we go along.”

Input form the public included whether the open house forum was informative, if Mountain Springs will help address part of the county´s future housing needs, and whether the new revised plan is good.

New plan for the project now reflects a 50 percent reduction in number of homes originally agreed to by the county.

The County General Plan allows for 1,122 homes in the area. The original Mountain Springs plan called for 2,078 homes. Kopf says the county approved 1,500 homes. “Right now we´re showing 800 retail houses and then 80 affordable homes that tie into that at this point,” Kopf explained.

According to the developer, that´s ends up being less than one home per acre overall density.

“What we´ve tried to do is come in with as low a density component as we can, but still make a village center work and still be able to justify the expense of doing an outside water treatment plant.”

Some say 80 affordable homes is not enough.

The community plans call for different types of housing, from a “moderate level of affordable housing, some multi-family units, duplexes , single family and custom homes, their information handouts read.

Kopf says the total number of homes, which will range in price from $175,000 to $600,000 and more, could be pushed down, but if county officials want more services from the developers more homes are necessary.

“You start going too far down from that, we have to start losing some of those components ,” Kopf said. “If people want to see us ad some other things and adjust some housing up from that, we´re more than willing to consider that as well.”

Kopf says additional open house sessions and opportunities for public comment are planned in the near future.

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