Scaled back Auburn plans for Baltimore Ravine on front burner again

Scaled-back plans for Auburn's last large vacant tract of developable land are moving toward a planning commission hearing Dec. 15.But instead of 1,203 residential units on 294 acres, The Baltimore Ravine specific plan calls for a bifurcated proposal that would add 725 residential units.Shrinking the development footprint even further, Baltimore Ravine Investors LLC is asking for designation of 130 acres on the southern end of the project properties as part of the initial specific plan while the remaining 147 acres closer to Interstate 80 would be designated as a future plan area.Development of the southern end during the first phase of Baltimore Ravine's buildout would situate 270 detached, single-family homes on 68 acres of the 130-acre plan area. Another 55 acres would be taken up by open space. The remaining seven acres would be right of way.The future plan area would include a mix of 455 single-family houses, condominiums and apartments, plus 90,000 square feet of commercial space, a two-acre park and 88 acres of open space.Reg Murray, a planner with the city of Auburn, said the planning commission hearing will be a starting point for the revised project, giving residents their first opportunity to comment on it.The 160-page specific plan document was made public last month and plans are to merge it with required environmental studies in 2010 for eventual consideration by the City Council.Stephen Des Jardins, of Baltimore Ravine Investors, said Monday that the old plan had more residential development slotted in for steeper areas. Des Jardins said that initial plans would have meant a "higher price point per house" and, in most cases, a bigger environmental impact.The proposal Baltimore Ravine Investors is now proposing is now asking for development approvals on the part of the project that contains no multi-family or commercial construction, he said.The Baltimore Ravine proposal was first designated in the 1970s as an urban reserve for future development.Lifelong Auburn resident Bart Ruud said the land should never have been put in urban reserve and could be better as a candidate as a nature preserve."I wonder what happens to the quality of Auburn life and the small-town feel," Ruud said. "We'll have to deal with traffic congestion and resultant air pollution. I submitted a list of 80 questions last year and the city has answered very few of those questions." Robert Feldman, a South Auburn resident who lives near the Baltimore Ravine reserve, said that the 725 units still in the plan "are still a lot of units.""Some of it needs to be preserved in the public trust," Feldman said. "The question is whether we want Auburn to become another Roseville."