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New in the Neighborhood for Sept. 20
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Anonymous user Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:57:26 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments A second person drowned at The Park at River Walk on Sept. 4.
Juan Ramirez-Calderon tried to swim across the west lake at the park around 8 p.m. Witnesses said the 31-year-old started having difficulties and disappeared under water. He was discovered on the lake bottom when another swimmer brushed his leg and taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Family members told police Ramirez-Calderon had not consumed alcohol and knew how to swim.
“No lifeguard on duty” signs posted around the lakes at the Park at River Walk just days before the death will protect the city from drowning lawsuits. It also means the city is unlikely to do anything more to keep park goers from swimming in the water.
The new phrase was added to park signs following a Bay Area court ruling in which a judge decided the city of Oakland was not responsible for a 14-year-old’s drowning since lifeguards had posted “No lifeguard on duty” signs when they left for the day.
Bakersfield City Council members said there’s little more they can do to prevent people from going in the ponds at the park.
Seven Oaks in Southwest Bakersfield plans to add nearly 31/2 square miles to its area, according to city officials and Castle & Cooke representatives.
The project is called “West Ming” by planners.
The 2,182-acre, Louisiana-shaped development will expand an existing development as well as the urban area of Bakersfield. It goes all the way to the intersection of Ming Avenue and the Kern River, far west of South Allen Road,  and is bounded in the south by Pacheco Road.
The city planning department has sent out nearly 200 mailers to nearby property owners — many of them Seven Oaks residents — to alert them of the addition.
The mailers were sent to alert neighbors that the city planning commission will look at the first draft of the environmental impact report prepared for the project on Oct. 5.
The project was first announced in May 2003 when Castle & Cooke bought 2,700 acres of land owned by Bolthouse Farms.
Castle & Cooke first bought the land from Bolthouse in 1993, then sold it back to Bolthouse in late 1995 and bought it back again in 2003. Carrots, garlic and potatoes, among other crops, were grown on the property for at least the last five years, the environmental report states.
Although the planning department would allow a maximum of 7,450 residences, Castle & Cooke plans to build only about 6,500 homes.
The expansion could accommodate 16,000 people.
The expansion will contain six villages, most with their own 6-acre park. The focal point will be called the Towne Center, with main street shopping leading to a European-style plaza, lake and 15-acre park.
Implementation of the 20-year plan requires annexation of most of the project into Bakersfield. While 640 acres are within the city, the remaining 1,542 acres are in unincorporated county land.
Annexation approval must be granted by the Kern County Local Agency Formation Commission.
The Sierra Club has already written at least one letter to the city complaining of yet another large development on prime agricultural land.  Traffic might also be an issue.
Castle & Cooke hopes to start construction in late 2007, but the city has it set for  2008.
The public can comment at the Oct. 5 city planning commission meeting and the report will be on the city’s Web site.

The so-called “Cool Parents” ordinance was passed unanimously last Wednesday by the Bakersfield City Council. The police can start enforcing it in one month’s time, according to the measure.
The decision was a victory for Nancy Chaffin — The Bakersfield Californian’s human resources director — who spearheaded the effort to revise the city’s “Loud and Unruly” ordinance.
Chaffin’s 20-year-old son, Jeff, died Nov. 18, 2001. He was a passenger in a car driven by a drunken driver who was in a crash on 7th Standard Road.
The revisions to the ordinance include imposing a civil penalty on people responsible for loud or unruly events where alcohol is served to underage people.
A responsible person is subject to a penalty of $1,000, even if they aren’t at the event.

The council also approved a letter written by city manager Alan Tandy to the U.S. General Services Administration, which has been working with the city on a suitable location for a proposed federal courthouse.
The letter addresses, in detail, what the city is “willing to do” to bring a federal courthouse downtown. Without specifying a location, the letter also asks for some flexibility from the GSA on how large a parcel it will require. In the letter, Tandy states that city blocks are about 1.6 acres to 1.8 acres, and that there are only a few sites downtown where a parcel of 2.5 acres to 3 acres is possible.
Councilwoman Sue Benham called the letter a “significant step” toward bringing the courthouse to downtown Bakersfield.

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