BACKGROUND
The project site is located at 2150 and 2151 Prairie Town Way. The site is to the south of Fiddyment Road, and is bounded on the south by Old Coach Road and Angus Road and on the east by Autumn Leaves Drive and on the west by Rustler Drive. The approximately 11.09 acre site has a Multi-Family Residential (R3) zoning designation and a High-Density Residential (HDR) land use designation, and is located within the Fiddyment Ranch portion of the West Roseville Specific Plan (WRSP). The WRSP consists of approximately 3,162 gross acres generally west of Fiddyment Road and includes 8,792 single and multi-family units, including approximately 704 age-restricted units, 57 acres of Commercial, 109 acres of Industrial, 255 acres of Park, 705 acres of Open Space, and 108 acres of Schools. At build-out the plan area is expected to accommodate approximately 22,332 residents and provide 3,726 jobs. The plan was adopted in February 2004.
Parcels F-25 and F-26 have been planned for HDR land use since the adoption of the WRSP in 2004. The two large lot parcels were created and the easements dedicated as part of the large lot subdivision map for the Fiddyment Ranch Phase 2 portion of the WRSP (File #SUBD 03-11). A high-density multi-family development that consists of 189 units across the two parcels, known in the planning phase as “Fiddyment Bungalows” and now marketed as “Solstice at Fiddyment Ranch”, was approved by City Council on July 7, 2021 (File #PL20-0258). The project included a 6-foot encroachment into the 25-foot wide Public Utility Easement (PUE) and Pedestrian Easement (PE) along the southern boundary of both parcels along Old Coach Drive and Angus Road. The proposed design of the project was found to provide ample space for utilities as well as sidewalks and pathways for pedestrians despite the reduced easement widths.
The current request includes the abandonment of those 6-foot wide portions of the easements along the southern boundary of the parcels at 2150 Prairie Town Road (F-25) and 2151 Prairie Town Road (F-26) due to conflicts with the proposed buildings.
Government Code Section 8300 et. seq. (Streets and Highways Code) states that an easement may be terminated (vacated) by adopting a resolution of vacation. There are two pathways for vacation: summary or general. An abandonment request for a public utility or pedestrian easement is eligible for the simpler summary vacation when any one of the three potential conditions applies:
1. The easement has not been used for the purpose for which it was dedicated or acquired for five consecutive years immediately preceding the proposed abandonment.
2. The easement has been in place for less than five years (making it ineligible for condition 1 above), but has been in place for at least a year and has not been used for the purpose for which it was dedicated or acquired.
3. The need for the easement has been superseded by relocation, and there are no other public facilities in the easement.
The PUE and PE were originally recorded with the large lot parcel map for Fiddyment Ranch Phase 2 in 2006, but there are no utilities currently within the easement, nor have there been utilities within the easement for the past five years. The proposed easement vacation was routed to all utilities which could be affected by the project, and no objections were received. For these reasons, staff concludes that condition 1 (as described above) for a summary vacation applies, and recommends approval of the vacation request.