A clearer picture is emerging of how Granite Bay could develop as county planners tally requests for modifying the area’s development bible.

With a June 30 deadline for change requests to the Granite Bay Community Plan now passed, officials have collected 48 zoning-modification appeals and 108 policy-change applications.

On the other hand, the controversial process yielded even more no-change requests – 178 in all.

Officials will share the information with the community at an in-depth report presented at next week’s Granite Bay Municipal Advisory Committee meeting, slated for 6 p.m. at the Eureka Union School District office, 5455 Eureka Road.

“We were surprised because out of the 8,500 properties in Granite Bay, we expected more requests for changes,” said County Planner E.J. Ivaldi. “What that tells us is most people are happy with where they are.”

That’s just fine with residents who have fought the update process for the past six months, saying it would wreck Granite Bay’s quality of life.

“We think this will mean more density and more commercial,” Granite Bay resident Marlene George told The Press-Tribune in May. “We’re very suspicious of the motives here.”

Of 284 total responses to the plan, 89 were to cancel the update process outright, and 87 requested “no change” to an area where some residents want to split their lots.

Opponents of the change say that shows the people aren’t in support of changing the community plan – and that county officials should back off.

The original community plan was adopted in 1989, and spells out exactly how and where property in the unincorporated area can develop. It’s characterized by larger lot requirements, further road setback restrictions and lower density compared with neighboring cities – features many say contribute to Granite Bay’s rural feel.

Supervisor Kirk Uhler, who represents Granite Bay, has pushed for the update process, on the grounds that the old plan is out of date and that the county is required by law to update it periodically.

If all of the change requests were approved – an outcome planners say is unlikely – the area’s housing units would increase by about 300, Ivaldi said.

“There was a huge concern there’s going to be a huge increase to density,” Ivaldi said. “Looking at all of this so far, the numbers don’t bear that out.”

Here’s a look at some of the requested changes:

* Developers of Rancho Del Oro, a residential site off Cavitt Stallman Road north of Miner’s Ravine, seek to reduce the minimum lot size there from 2.3 acres to ¾ acre. That would increase the maximum number of homes possible at the site from 23 to 70.

* Lisa Powers, owner of the Quarry Ponds center at 5550 Douglas Blvd., seeks to change the designation of an adjacent parcel from residential/agriculture to office.

* Nine property owners along Itchy Acres Road have requested the ability to split their lots; currently, they’re stuck with a 4.6-acre minimum. “People are trying to look down the road for their children,” Ivaldi said. “They’d like to split their properties to either give or sell to them.” But the issue has proved divisive, with 87 requests for no land-use change on Itchy Acres and 33 in favor of changes.