MAY 24, 2018 — Through the efforts of many citizens and organizations that have voiced their objections to this development, the completion of the Final Environmental Impact Report continued to be stymied and hearing dates delayed and delayed. However, according to the County the Final EIR will be completed and posted soon.
The final environmental report for the 125 home development in the eastern Tassajara Valley, adjacent to Tassajara Hills Elementary School, will soon be issued, hearing dates set, and sent to the Board of Supervisors for a vote.
To refresh your mind, please read on:
The developer of Tassajara Parks has tried multiple iterations to gain approval for his project and in his latest attempt has added a few new wrinkles in an attempt to gain the county’s approval to allow his development to cross the county’s urban limit line (“ULL”). His inducements to the county include:
• Ask the County, San Ramon, and Danville to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) to not support further development in Tassajara Valley.
• Donate a portion of his land for open space
• Write a check for $4 million to the County
Approval of this development can only happen when 4 out of 5 supervisors vote yes and at least one of seven approved exceptions are cited by the Supervisors. The only exception that could possibly be cited is that a “Preservation Agreement” exists and that is why the developer is attaching the MOU that creates the Preservation Agreement as an appendix to the Environmental Impact Report.
• The MOU is a document that was invented by the developer to try to skip the required public vote to move the ULL for his project
• The MOU bills itself as a preservation agreement, but does not actually preserve anything, since Tassajara Valley is already legally protected by the ULL and restrictive zoning
• The MOU is growth-inducing because once in place it will allow any developer in the entire county to also skip the required public vote to develop outside the ULL.
• The MOU is not enforceable—the signatory parties may abandon the agreement at any time.
Before the County’s Supervisors can give their approval to Tassajara Parks, they will be faced with some hard facts and determined opposition from citizens and organizations throughout the county. First the facts:
• The developments total area exceeds 30 acres, therefore a public vote is required
• The county’s own required five year study conducted in 2016 concluded that “sufficient capacity exists inside the ULL to accommodate housing and job growth through 2036”
• It appears that the city council of San Ramon is undecided on joining the MOU, and without San Ramon’s participation and Danville’s opposition, the MOU cannot be executed and no exception can be used by the Supervisors to approve the development
• We believe that only one more supervisor’s vote is needed to defeat this project.
Organizations on record as opposed to this development include:
• The town of Danville
• Greenbelt Alliance
• Sierra Club
• East Bay Municipal Utility District
• Tassajara Valley Preservation Association
• And over 3300 signers of our petition
The time for action is now. We will notify you of any governmental organization where and when the Tassajara Parks comes to a vote. But importantly, please do this now:
• Contact at least one friend in the county and ask them to sign
thereby doubling the signatures on the petition that will be
presented to the Supervisors
With your help, this project will be defeated and our Urban Limit Line preserved!
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
@tassajaranews
Kind regards,
Richard Fischer
Co-founder TVPA
UPDATE: Tassajara Parks Final EIR to be completed soon!