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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPA2017-228 Comment 49_04242019_EmkenFrom: Emken, Bruce <Bruce.Emken@blackrock.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2019 7:36 AM To: Zdeba, Benjamin Cc: jeneva.emken@gmail.com Subject: 4302 Ford Road Proposal - NO Dear Ben, I am writing to express my strong opposition to the 4302 Ford Road multi-family housing project being proposed by Hines. My major concerns are around safety for our children and the additional traffic/congestion into an extremely closed space in that corner of the neighborhood. My family has been a resident in the Port Streets (1615 Port Barmouth) since late 2008. We have two sons (8 and 9.5 years old) and spend a tremendous amount of time at the Bonita Canyon Sports Park, the pickleball courts, tennis courts, etc. Our children either bike, skateboard or scooter over to the courts quite frequently. The addition of this multi-family housing project gives me grave concerns over their safety. By introducing the potential of 21 new units, you would adding a very unnecessary and dangerous amount of additional traffic into a very narrow and closed space. That part of Ford Road dead ends into the parking lot for the park. The proposal for the condo/apartments does not have adequate enough parking for 21 units and 40+ additional vehicles. These cars/drivers will be spilling over onto Ford Road for parking, into the parking lot, etc. Drivers will be circling around looking for parking on the street, etc. which is right next to the bike lane where a high number of children will be riding bikes to and from the park. This project dramatically increases the likelihood of a child fatality or severe injury by being struck by a distracted driver on that part of Ford Road. What is the upside to the city for approval? A bit of additional tax revenue off of a 21 unit project? That has to be so insignificant in terms of financial impact for the city of Newport Beach. The downside is you are creating a dangerous environment for our children, cramming an unneeded apartment complex into a neighborhood where it doesn’t fit in any way, shape or form and eliminating 1 acre of open nature which is becoming more scarce in our city. There is simply nothing about this project that makes sense for the city and for the residents of Port Streets. It only makes sense for Hines. I am not an attorney, but I have to believe there is potential liability to the city around the lawsuits that will inevitably take place if any child is injured/killed due to the addition of this project (during construction or post-construction). The amount of emails you have already received documenting concerns over congestion, traffic, blind spots, etc. will be evidence that the Planning Commission was negligent in their approval of this project. I urge the planning commission to reject this proposal. There is such minimal economic value creation vs the overwhelming amount of negative impacts. Thank you for taking our concerns and our children’s safety seriously. Bruce Emken, CFA, CIMA, CAIA Director BlackRock | iShares Cell: 949-375-6406 bruce.emken@blackrock.com This message may contain information that is confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please advise the sender immediately and delete this message. See http://www.blackrock.com/corporate/compliance/email-disclaimers for further information. Please refer to http://www.blackrock.com/corporate/compliance/privacy-policy for more information about BlackRock’s Privacy Policy. Associate of BlackRock Investments, LLC (“BRIL”) and/or BlackRock Execution Services, both members FINRA/SIPC. The iShares Funds and BlackRock Mutual Funds are distributed by BRIL. For current prospectuses for iShares products, go to www.ishares.com/prospectus. For a list of BlackRock's office addresses worldwide, see http://www.blackrock.com/corporate/about- us/contacts-locations. © 2019 BlackRock, Inc. All rights reserved.