At the July 19, 2016 City Council meeting, council members laid the groundwork for a large hotel development at Maderas Golf Club, voting 4-1 to approve a request by the club owner to modify their specific plan to include a 240-room hotel (Councilman Grosch opposed), and approved the measure that will be placed on the November election ballot. The application was brought to the City with short notice in order to meet the deadline to appear on the election ballot.
Council also approved an addendum to the 1990 Environmental Impact Report (EIR) stating that there is no new information of substantial importance which would result in new significant or substantially increased adverse impacts as a result of the development of a 240-room hotel.
The GVCA asked Council to reduce the number of rooms and include basic project parameters (i.e, square footage, size and mass) in the language of the ballot measure. Our request was denied with a unanimous vote. Neighbors also addressed Council with concerns about relying on a 26-year-old EIR, increased noise, lack of wildfire escape routes, and traffic/safety issues resulting from a 240-room hotel in this otherwise quiet rural setting.
The GVCA recognizes the economic importance to the City which is expecting to receive $1.5 million per year of hotel tax revenue from this development and the desire to keep Maderas as one of the top golf courses in the country. However, we are disappointed that Council chose not to include additional project information about the location, size and scale of the development in the ballot measure so that voters have a better understanding of what they are being asked to consider at the November 8th election.