After listening to San Geronimo Valley residents testify for and against the proposed French Ranch subdivision for more than three hours Monday night, an exhausted Planning Commission decided against rushing to judgment.

The commission will reconvene Friday, July 11, at 1 p.m. to determine whether the project can proceed as designed or whether changes are needed to insure that a horse ranch will continue to exist on the site.

The property has historically been used to breed horses, and county supervisors required the project to include an equestrian center when they approved its Master Plan in 1995.

Since then, the equestrian facility has been relocated twice to avoid wetlands. Now designed to go in its original location, the facility's size has been reduced to avoid building on a serpentine rock formation or adjacent to a nearby seep.

Other changes to the Master Plan include the addition of seven houses for very-low-income families and a pond-based wastewater system to be shared with the neighboring Lagunitas School District, both added at the community's request.

The commission met this week to consider whether these changes were consistent with the supervisors' approval. Though they heard passionate testimony on both sides, it was the redesigned horse ranch that concerned them most.

"I really feel if you're changing the Master Plan, and the horse ranch gets short-changed, you're not doing it fairly," Commissioner Arlene Evans told developers at the end of the evening.

Evans, who chaired the session, was responding in part to testimony from equestrians, who insisted the proposed facility was in jeopardy of being shrunk out of existence.

Planning staff recommended no construction within 50 feet of the seep, a requirement that would further reduce the size of the riding ring, which equestrians say would make the facility impractical.

However, planners also required a deed restriction to keep the 12-acre parcel available only as an equestrian site.

"What I'm worried about is this is going to be a postage stamp-sized facility surrounded by houses," said Cathy DeVito, president of the San Geronimo Horseman's Association.

"Is this going to be built?" she asked. "How long could it sit there with a deed restriction before the county decides to do something else with the property?"

The commission asked planning staff and the developers to propose ways to reconfigure the horse center or relocate it to a less sensitive part of the property before commissioners reconvene Friday.

Also disputed was the addition of very-low-income housing. The houses' size would range from 1,300 to 2,000 square feet, and they would be reserved for either senior citizens or families.

However, six of the additional homes have been tightly clustered in an area just east of Forest Knolls on the north side of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. A small orchard has been designed to screen them from the road.

Several Valley residents told commissioners they were dismayed to learn that nine houses were now planned for an area where they expected only three.

"This is our quality of life we're talking about," said Laura Marks, who lives across the street from the proposed building site. "This is what we'll see when we step outside."

Speaking on behalf of Valley seniors, however, John Donley endorsed the design. "This project is needed and desired by our senior community," he said. "This is specifically appropriate for seniors in the Valley - small buildings at very low costs."

Others, like David Reich of Woodacre, argued that low-income houses, as planned, would segregate the community. "The clustered housing creates a lower-income ghetto and a higher-income-estate section," he said. "This is totally inconsistent with the Valley."

Commissioners said they would like to see how the building site would appear with nine houses close together, but added they were inclined to approve the design, as it fulfills a stated community need.

"I am somewhat surprised at the level of unhappiness at that part of the proposal," said Commissioner Jan Alff Weigel. "We're losing sight of why it's there in the first place. We have to balance aesthetics with what it does for the county."

By clustering the small houses together, the construction would avoid excessive sprawl by keeping it close to the developed area of Forest Knolls, noted Commissioner Ross Herbertson.

"There are good reasons for putting them there," he said. "It's probably the best place to put them."

Commissioners also said they were inclined to approve the proposed wastewater system, which was endorsed at the meeting by Brian Dodd, a Lagunitas School District trustee, and Jim Walton, a district consultant for campus renovation.

Walton noted the pond-based system would allow the school to use district property for school buildings or playing fields instead of a septic leachfield, and Dodd told commissioners the pond-based system would save the district money in construction and maintenance costs.

However, a lawyer representing Mark Warner of Forest Knolls told commissioners the agreement between the district and the developer didn't specify how the operational costs would be divided, or exactly how the system would be designed.