On November 15th 2024, Superior Court Judge Michael Markman ruled that Livermore’s tactic to avoid putting a downtown housing project on the ballot would not stand. You can read the judge’s order and also the coverage in The Independent.
Argument Against Measure _
Dublin Traffic Relief, Clean Air/Open Space Preservation Measure
Measure_ is deceptive. It claims to reduce traffic and preserve open space, but in reality it would increase traffic and reduce open space. It would allow giant distribution warehouses east of Fallon Road, huge truck traffic, and pollution. No Environmental Impact Report was prepared for voters to make an informed decision, inviting a lawsuit.
Measure_ overturns Dublin residents’ decision in 2014 to create an eastern Urban Limit Line to protect scenic Doolan Canyon from being developed. When developers tried to break the Urban Limit Line to allow 2,000 houses, Dublin voters rejected their initiative by 84%.
Our 2014 Urban Limit Line already allows the Dublin Blvd. extension to connect Dublin with Livermore, but it doesn’t allow major urban development in the scenic corridor. Now the city council wants a blank check to allow massive new development on that open space land. There is no plan, no environmental report, no actual agreement with the developer about costs. The only thing known for sure is that our eastern greenbelt will be lost. Currently, Dublin and Livermore will split the $55 million estimated cost of the roadway. If Measure _ passes, Livermore pays NOTHING. Dublin is responsible for all $55 million. That means massive development along the roadway. Proponents of Measure _ claim it will be good for the environment, but local environmental groups Save Mount Diablo, Audubon Society, California Native Plant Society East Bay Chapter, and others oppose Measure _ because it will actually:
Dr. Sherry (Xin) Hu
Jean Josey
Shawn Costello
Thomas G Evans
Michael McCorriston
Razi Hasni
John Morada
Jack Balch
Karla Brown
Valerie Arkin
Craig Eicher
Matt Gaidos
Vivek Mohan
Here is a candidate list (Mayor unopposed)
Steven Dunbar
David Farley
Jeff Kaskey
Thomas Soules
Kristie Wang
Machine generated transcript of the 2024-08-20 Planning Commission meeting with video timestamps, synchronized with the video posted on our Youtube page.
0:02
okay good evening ladies and gentlemen uh and uh welcome to tonight’s uh August
0:08
20th I call this meeting planning uh I call tonight’s August 20th Planning Commission meeting to order can we have
0:14
a roll call commissioner dumbar here commissioner konac here commissioner ly
0:22
here Vice chair fince chenko here and chairperson Anderson here um let’s stand
0:28
for the pledge of aliance I believe there’s a flag
0:35
outside I pledge allegiance flag of United States of America to
0:42
the stands na indivisible andice for
0:51
all thank you okay that will take us to open Forum
0:58
this is an opportunity for the public to address the Planning Commission regarding any items not on the agenda
1:04
tonight um in Con in conformance with the brown act no Planning Commission action can occur on items presented
1:10
during open Forum um to provide public comment please submit a speaker card when your
1:17
name is called walk up to the back of the projector we will have a microphone
1:22
ready for you um comments are limited to a maximum of 3 minutes per person per item um the chair May reduce the time
1:29
time in the amount or reduce the amount of time based on the number of persons wishing to speak open form will conclude
1:37
after 30 minutes however if there are are additional speakers open form will
1:42
reconvene after matters for consideration all comments submitted via email to the Planning Commission before
1:48
noon today provided in the Planning Commission and are included in the PC
1:54
packet supplemental materials so do we have any public comment
2:01
Doug man I’m Doug man um Springtown and the
2:09
adjoining areas of the city uh north of 580 have been historically given less
2:15
attention and respect than where we live and I say we because the five of you and me don’t live here uh we’re all you know
2:23
much further south in city and um it we don’t always notice what the heck’s
2:29
going on over here um it was a laudable decision to bring this meeting to the Elks Which is far
2:35
more accessible location for attendees who want to participate and be respected as equals um so let’s talk about
2:44
Equity the if the gavit hill project had been located in
2:49
Southside I have no doubt it would have been conserved long ago being situated
2:54
in the Deep North how long did it take for any of us all of us to even notice
2:59
that this was was going on um residents over here were publicly against uh the
3:04
urbanization of the Hill as far back as 2011 um but the first I heard about it was 29 ask yourselves when was the first
3:13
time you heard about gavet the hill and the controversy uh around it um maybe we
3:19
need some sort of north south awareness committee um or encourage the inclusion
3:24
of Greater Geographic diversity on committees like this so that you know we’re not all from over there sort of
3:30
making decisions about what goes on you know over here over the past few years as a society we have gradually learned
3:37
to our benefit that proactively paying attention to other people who don’t look like us have a different lifestyle or
3:43
live under different conditions than uh than us is a necessary activity for a
3:49
healthy Society uh besides it’s the right thing to do um the people who live north of 580
3:56
are not like us by virtue of their geography um in the Contemporary essence of the
4:02
expression they need to be seen and they want and expect the city
4:08
to do everything in its power to protect an an environmentally sensitive area from being
4:13
destroyed let’s stand firmly with
4:23
them if you have a public comment for open Forum not for the agenda uh
4:28
agendized item just for open form please
4:34
uh okay so um I can’t couldn’t agree more
4:40
with the last speaker um coming from or growing in um living in Springtown for
4:48
30 years I’ve been asking questions that I haven’t had answered since like
4:55
2002 2004 maybe at the latest and you know things kind of get bounced around
5:02
oh that’s you know Public Works um we
5:08
actually had place works here um and there well it wasn’t here well
5:14
there was one here but it was at um the Offa Airway they got the big Center
5:21
there the shrine Center and you know we had assigned
5:27
seats and a lot of people came with friends and good ideas we walked in
5:32
there we couldn’t sit with the people we came with because they wanted to encourage diversity and anything you
5:40
said in your little group sort of was twisted and perceived it was written
5:45
down as a perception from our facilitator there was a facilitator at
5:50
each table so specific things that we were trying to get across were squashed
5:58
you know we had spefic specific things that we were trying to maybe um have our city consider but
6:07
instead they took what you said art my facilitator who you know he still works
6:12
for the city he took what I said and put it under a very general heading and it
6:18
really wasn’t what I was saying so I really think that um something needs to
6:24
be done to bridge the disconnect and it can’t in appearance because when David
6:32
early was asking us questions at the time you know for our area I would give
6:39
him I would ask him questions and he couldn’t answer map
6:45
questions boundary questions things that were extremely relevant to you know the
6:52
conversation and so it got squashed but thank you for listening and I know you
6:58
you you know you have we all have our own backyard and our mind at all times I’m sure but thanks for thinking about
7:04
that and um I really do appreciate what doug man just said he couldn’t it couldn’t be further from the
7:12
truth thank you do we have a any more speakers for open form no then I will
7:18
close the open form and move us to consent calendar which we have none which will take us to project review
7:24
which we have none which will then take us to public hearings and we have have
7:29
5.1 a public hearing to receive comments on recirculated uh partial draft
7:35
environmental impact report uh for garavente Hills project that includes
7:40
the following land use uh entitlements vesting 10 of tra act map
7:46
8094 and site plan design review 13
7:53
-005 um I will hand it over to staff for our uh presentation
8:01
good evening chairperson Anderson members of the commission my name is Steve Stewart special projects
8:06
coordinator and I’m joining at the staff table with Deputy City attorney Katherine Miu uh acting principal acting
8:14
planning manager Ben Murray uh and also Rebecca Al vice president at lamford
8:19
Gregory environmental Consultants is with us um and so
8:30
be juggling a few pieces of equipment here this
8:36
evening so we’re we are here this evening to receive comments on the
8:41
Garena Hills recirculated partial draft environmental impact
8:47
report and uh there’s a particular focus of tonight’s meeting we’ll talk a little
8:53
bit more in detail later on but it’s specifically to receive comments on the
8:58
recirculated portions of the project deir or environmental impact report that
9:03
talked about available funding sources for acquiring and preserving the property as open space under a
9:11
particular project alternative that’s required to be in an in an environmental impact
9:17
report so we’ve recirculated only those parts that have been revised from the
9:23
previous environmental impact report and we’re requesting that comments come in
9:28
just on those recirculated um new parts of the environmental impact report and
9:35
that’s consistent with the court ruling in California environmental law that um
9:42
will only address or respond to comments on that topic in the final environmental
9:47
impact report that’ll be published later on and uh that lines up um with the
9:54
appell at Court’s decision we’ll look at that a little later uh that only that part of the previous environmental
10:00
impact report was found uh deficient uh when the project was
10:06
challenged the court found the rest of the environmental impact report um to be
10:12
adequate reg regarding all other potential environmental impact environmental
10:17
impacts uh so staff and uh Rebecca from Lanier are here to answer questions on
10:22
technical aspects of it but really tonight’s not a it’s not typically a a question and answer time it’s just to
10:31
purely receive comments from uh the public on that draft
10:39
document so just as a reminder here’s the project site it’s shown on our
10:45
general plan land use designation
10:52
map and uh this is the about 32 Acre Site here in between Vasco Road and
10:57
Laughlin Road just north of Altamont Creek Elementary School and Altamont Creek Park the general plan designation
11:06
Urban low 1 and its zoning of residential have been that way since
11:11
about the mid 70s could could predate that but our 1976 General plan
11:17
designates that as residential it has been ever since this is a closer up view of of the
11:25
site and you can see the the Terminus of Bear Creek Drive
11:30
here in the lower right Prov we’ll provide access to it Altamont Creek is a
11:36
a small Creek that runs along the South to the West is the gabena wetlands
11:42
preserve owned and managed by liver area Recreation and Park District and then
11:47
the marilissa development uh and surrounding development and open space on the
11:52
project site
11:57
there so lots of history on the uh project I’m not going to go through all
12:03
these in detail um but it did start in 2011 and 12 with an application and and
12:10
work on an environmental impact report for a project at the time that was 76 units uh it had a two-lane bridge
12:17
going over the Altamont Creek from Hawk Street excuse me and it required a
12:23
general plan amendment to increase the density uh that was already on the property
12:30
uh did some work on that and reduced uh in response in part in response to uh
12:35
City staff and uh comments from uh the community to reduce the density so uh it
12:42
ended up with 47 units the bridge was removed was revised a couple of times uh
12:48
came back to the city council with the bridge removed due to Neighborhood
12:55
concerns uh and in 2015 the uh city council recommended that
13:02
Project Return to the Planning Commission with clear direction to revise the project to reduce grading
13:07
make it more subordinate to the land form and in uh
13:15
2018 the project did return uh with those Council directives
13:22
incorporated into the project and then the environmental impact report was also
13:27
reissued to to cover uh any kind of changes that may have
13:33
occurred from the project and um did not change the previous conclusions of the
13:40
original environmental impact report so the Planning Commission considered that in 2018 the project at this point was 44
13:47
units of 38 single family detached and two uh six affordable
13:53
Duets Council later approved that in 2019 in the spring and certified the
14:00
environmental impact report uh that project on the screen now
14:06
is the project that was approved in 2019 by the council again uh 44 units with
14:12
some affordable uh Duets interspersed in the development uh has now a bridge back
14:19
over Altamont Creek from Hawk Street extension but only for emergency vehicles and pedestrian bicyclists or
14:26
other forms of Mobility uh has a trail connection down at the South uh Eastern corner
14:34
here about the lots and houses and other improvements comprise about 40% of the
14:41
overall uh lot area about 60% is the uh two nles on the property and the open
14:48
space buffers around the project that’ll remain in its natural
14:54
state and then part of the uh project in uh the property that’s also owned by the
15:01
gaventa family is this 85 acre um property that lafy communities is also
15:08
in contract with them to provide environmental mitigation for development on this site so this site will be set
15:15
aside in perpetuity with conservation easement and endowment and management plan for the um significant biological
15:22
resources on that property
15:30
so that in 2019 I believe save the hill group did challenge the project and in
15:36
2020 the Superior Court denied that lawsuit but in 2022 the appell at court
15:41
did um remand that decision back to
15:46
Superior Court with uh finding that the no project alternative was inadequate
15:52
because it did not include a discussion of uh the potential availability of open
15:59
space funds to acquire and preserve the project site as open space in the no
16:05
project alternative analysis the court also directed the city to rescind or remove the approvals
16:13
and and desertify the eir so the city council did that in November of
16:21
2022 in early 2023 laferty communities applied to proceed with the the project
16:28
and remedy the deficiency identified by the appell at court and uh the city along with lanord
16:36
Gregory uh environmental consultant have been preparing the recirculated partial
16:41
draft environmental impact report that is before you up for uh comments this
16:54
evening so the court uh found
17:00
um all of the other challenges to the E Merit list including challenges to the
17:06
biological resources impacts and hydrological impacts to the Springtown Alkali
17:12
sink um and um just as a reminder the applicant
17:18
does intend to proceed with that exact same project uh that was approved in
17:23
2018 so there’s no changes to project impacts that were evaluated in the um
17:30
subsequent um eirs that revised along with the project
17:36
revisions and so in in uh consistent with the California Environmental
17:41
Quality Act and the Court’s ruling again were um focused our analysis in in this
17:47
draft document on the feasibility and availability of those potential funding
17:54
sources and again the the um
18:00
other environmental analyses included in the eir with stod uh all other legal
18:09
challenges so regarding those open space uh funding sources that might be
18:15
available uh we then set off to explore those over the course of the end of
18:22
2023 and 20 first six months or so of 2024 uh including several appearances at
18:28
the alamont Landfill open space committee to um discuss the availability
18:33
of those funds to acquire the site there’s also funds available for
18:39
open space acquisition uh through a dhy valley settlement agreement um both of those funds do
18:48
require a willing seller and so they they were determined to be ineligible
18:53
for the use to acquire that property as open space
19:00
so we also looked at um
19:05
other ways including eminent domain to uh preserve that property and basically
19:11
take it against the will of the property owner uh with funds from other sources
19:17
like the city’s transferal development credits fund and uh either um a general
19:23
f fund allocation supported through a ballot initiative or Bond measure uh or
19:29
the city’s open space and acquisition management fund so the the property is actually
19:36
outside of the area that’s eligible for the transfer development credits fund money the open space acquisition and
19:42
management fund doesn’t have uh very much in it and we use that to maintain
19:48
some of the open space properties that we have already like uh fence maintenance signage um vandalism repair
19:55
things like that
20:02
and then the the other
20:08
um methods through eminent domain um would require pretty significant legally
20:15
complicated and cost prohibitive fair market uh eminent domain proceedings and
20:22
the use of funds that the city has PRI prioritized elsewhere to provide services
20:29
so the the city council uh and you the Planning Commission and your advisory role will
20:35
take these into consideration uh when you look at the project when it returns along with land use
20:41
entitlements uh and we’re anticipating that to occur in the
20:52
fall so tonight again we’re here to collect comments on that recirculated partial draft dra environmental impact
21:00
report uh we’ll talk the next slide ask some Logistics on where to send those comments um City staff and our
21:08
consultant will take the comments here this evening written and verbal um and
21:14
those comments would be incorporated into the final um partial final
21:21
environmental impact report along with responses to those comments and only
21:27
those comments that are focused on this topic of available funding sources and the no project alternative would be
21:34
responded to um and again we we anticipate the
21:40
Planning Commission and Council looking at the the final recirculated partial
21:46
eir in the fall the 45 day public review period
21:53
commenced on August 30th it runs through September 13th that five
21:59
o and again we’ll take comments received here this evening and treat those just as if you were to email those in real
22:06
quick you said August 30th I think you meant July 30th sorry July 30th yes 45
22:11
day public review comment period uh again with the September 13th
22:18
deadline by 5:00 to send those to me please there’s my contact information
22:23
and my email address is up there if you can include your contact information there that in those Communications that’
22:29
be great and with that uh that concludes
22:35
the presentation and we would just recommend the Planning Commission receive uh public comments and um we’re
22:43
here to answer technical questions if you have those
22:50
thanks thank you um so just to clarify you know the Planning Commission will
22:57
not be voting on anything or doing anything like that tonight we’re here to receive public comment from the public
23:04
that’s correct okay thank you just want to clarify that okay then is there any
23:10
clarifying questions before we open for public comment up here okay then we’ll
23:15
go ahead and Trac commissioner gr Tracy it’s just fine thank you chair
23:24
um two questions um one is in the course of your presentation and obviously the
23:29
the materials that we’ve received you had mentioned that this land and the underlying land use was you know
23:36
designated as Urban low density from at least the 1976 General plan just out of
23:43
curiosity has the Gant family also owned it since prior to that time as
23:49
well I am not sure of that but I do you know they own significant land Holdings
23:54
in in uh North Livermore okay so this is basically though from the purposes of
24:00
General planning this has gone through two revisions of the general plan the 76
24:05
the 2003 yes and then now it’s going to also
24:11
be designated as such in the 2025 is General plan as well that’s right there
24:16
was a f also a focused update in 1988 got it missed that thank you um
24:22
second question regarding sea uh which is as you know an area of personal interest of mine uh by Design uh squa as
24:30
a law has been created as a discovery mechanism by the state of California and
24:36
the Arbiter of those discoveries is the court system by Design is that correct I will turn that over to Deputy
24:44
City attorney Katherine miru for official answer if I understand your question
24:49
correctly it’s that the mechanism to challenge something under squa is the courts yes yes that’s correct and
24:56
secondly now that this has gone through the court of appeals the court have made their ruling and arbitrated on this
25:03
accordingly um do you happen to have the actual text of the arbitration available
25:09
that explicitly calls out this Frame and scope that we’re considering tonight yes
25:15
I do would you be willing to please read that into public
25:20
comment sure so the or a summary of it yes I know how these things look so the
25:28
court of appeal said that the eir that the city was required to set aside the E
25:35
and the project approval because it failed to provide adequate information
25:42
about the funding available for the no project alternative and it dismissed all
25:47
of the other challenges accordingly that’s correct okay great thank
25:53
you thank you anything else okay then I will go ahead and open up the uh public
26:00
comment remember submit a speaker card and then when your name’s called walk up to uh behind the projector and you’ll be
26:08
given the microphone Doug
26:14
man I’m secretary for Citizens for balanced growth squa has Provisions to
26:21
re-trigger an eir when certain new information is obtained about an environmentally damaging project so
26:29
we’ll be starting all over again and continuing for as many years as it
26:34
takes extending far beyond the NPA although the result of tonight’s
26:39
meeting will just contribute to a reverse loop on the SQL flowchart receiving comments might still do some
26:46
good let’s concentrate on the weirdest part of this whole thing which is the interactions with the trustee Lisa
26:53
casito the staff report claims that Cito is not a willing seller we put this expression into the
27:00
dvsa when we uh settled the the lawsuit to prohibit emminent domain purchases
27:08
Cito is a willing seller and actively engaged in the process of selling this
27:13
asset under self-imposed restrictive terms her preferred buyer laferty has
27:20
refused to buy for 13 years casito claims they are restricted by contract
27:26
to sell only to laf what she doesn’t say is it’s an option contract laferty pays them to not sell
27:34
to anyone else but it’s also not Perpetual but one that renews on a regular basis in the renewal periods she
27:43
can sell to anyone February 2nd Livermore offered $868,000
27:48
cito’s February 5 reply defines their selling price as $3.5
27:55
million staff paradoxically followed up February 29th with an offer for 1.74
28:02
million this offer was designed to fail other than to mock aggravate and
28:09
waste the owner’s time what possible purpose did that serve they could have responded if the
28:15
city offered 3.5 million and you were not under another contract would you consider it for
28:21
example we don’t know how many other insults cedo may have endured over the years but one might wonder if this sort
28:28
sort of thing explains the accelerating tone of resentment in her letters here’s where you can help
28:35
although you’re not required to take any action you do have the option to help
28:40
cut through the fog ask your staff to engage a professional mediator a neutral
28:46
party may be able to find solutions to the fractured relationship between the city and the seller as an eir expense
28:52
the developer will even pay for it you could also request your staff contract with an actual real estate agent to
28:59
represent the city it costs nothing and there’s no better way to consummate a real estate deal than to give marching
29:05
orders to a motivated professional both of these activities can occur in parallel again you’re not
29:13
required but if you do nothing tonight except passively receive comments undone
29:20
one has to wonder what you as public servants are actually doing to help the
29:27
community the RP draft e remains
29:33
inadequate Bianca
29:44
karell good evening sorry I can’t stand I literally had knee surgery four days ago um but this is a very important
29:51
topic to me my name is Bianca Celli and um I’m save the hill group um I
29:57
appreciate your time this evening very much for your dedication and hard work for all of your planning throughout our
30:03
beautiful town of Livermore it’s very special to me initially I’d like to State for the record and remind City
30:09
staff that we do have a legal right to make comments tonight on the draft Di and the directive to limit comments to
30:15
strictly funding is misinformation and this is why I argue that significant new
30:21
conditions and new information have come up over the last few years that will
30:26
re-trigger the requirements to amend the E and recirculate the city’s project page has
30:33
the 2014 final eir and the 2018 reissued final e most of the reports are from
30:42
2014 the only difference between the two projects was density of the development no new studies the reports in the final
30:50
e are quite old the city lost a presidential legal judgment that required the city to set aside the
30:56
certification of the r feir and the approval of the project what they didn’t
31:01
mention is that they handw wrote a letter to the California Supreme Court in association with other building
31:08
communities and the California Supreme Court came back and said after the city of Livermore requested that the ruling
31:15
be tossed out from the appell at Court ruling and the California Supreme Court said this not only are we upholding this
31:22
presidential ruling but you are no longer allowed to appeal this ruling so that’s says a lot and maybe there are
31:30
issues about the ER that didn’t come out in the courts because this other issue was so important so i’ just like you to
31:36
consider that over the last few years I have been diligent in research and committed to Consulting with experts on
31:43
the pertinent Issues new information and conditions regarding the special Hill there are many lengthy Studies by
31:50
those experts being prepared now the process isn’t quite complete as to what will be in the record yet but comment
31:57
submissions will be made prior to the September 13th deadline the environmental consultant may be
32:03
overwhelmed with the plethora of new information and the Abundant additional work that they may be required to
32:09
perform require regarding the funding issue we can all agree the second the Court’s precedent the precedential
32:16
ruling wherein they vacated the IR and the project we can agree that the valuation on the land declined
32:24
significantly the comment made of the current valuation of the Hill being 15 to 20 million is beyond erroneous
32:31
misinformation and impossible attempt at hindering informed decision-making and public perception the question is the
32:37
city is in good faith honoring the Court’s position that on a piece of land that is so environmentally sensitive and
32:43
rare it’s very it’s a very unique diversity and there’s nothing like it anywhere else in our state conservation
32:52
should be considered and that’s what the court said I was in the hearing when they said it the property was list
32:57
listed at various times since 2017 the listing price in 2017 was 4.9
33:03
million the city’s recent offer of over 800,000 and then 1.7 it wasn’t a fair
33:09
market value offer no wonder the land owners rejected it that’s why they’re
33:14
being considered a unwilling seller they are clear clearly a willing seller thank
33:21
you could you finish up your comment the city contends the land owners are not willing to sell I feel that if a
33:26
Bonafide Fair market value offer was offered they’re a reasonable seller they would consider
33:32
it this loss by the city and the courts was an exit to that option that laf is
33:38
holding on this property but do the land owners know that do they know that there’s funding available to
33:44
purchase I request tonight that you the Planning Commission take to heart the
33:50
magnitude and the time spent on this proposed project it’s been over 12 years
33:56
and I can personally attest to that I’ve been involved I can recommend that you send this back to staff and demand
34:03
preparation of an accurate proper updated and current eir thank you so
34:09
much for your attention thank
34:15
you
34:22
Vladimir I’m going to sit too since you guys are all comfortable um
34:31
uh for one I think you should have letters speak all the way through because she
34:36
underwent surgery as she said four days ago and she is Sav the hill and I think
34:42
what she has to say is pretty important I don’t think there’s any reason to be concerned over the one minute that she
34:48
takes uh just had to say it you know I drove here myself and she’s clearly
34:55
committed uh the other thing I’d like to say is hello to my old friend Steve stwart I remember
35:02
when we were at the Genta meeting a few months ago
35:07
and uh my impression was that you were dreading that meeting and I don’t blame you because it was very long and drawn
35:13
out I’m surprised to see you back I think what that says is that
35:18
everybody’s got a price right and uh in this case it was worth it for you to come back
35:24
on on the topic of that uh the main uh your whole argument seems to
35:31
rest on the idea that the land owner is not a willing seller and as Doug and
35:37
Bianca pointed out earlier it’s bogus because they’re trying to
35:45
build as many homes as possible on this land for 10 years now and working with
35:51
the developer these people are trying to make money the reason they’re not a
35:57
willing sell to the city is because you ridicule them with
36:02
$800,000 the other thing that I found interesting actually in your report since we’re discussing the no project
36:09
alternative I thought you should mention how much the land is worth do you know how much it’s worth I know they said it
36:14
earlier but do you know at this point as the city because a few months ago you told me it was $5 to20
36:21
million and as Bianca said there’s some text in uh
36:28
seet that I was reading earlier but something
36:33
about in informed decision making and public participation and I think that when
36:38
you lie about how much the land is worth even though you have letters from the
36:44
land owner and you have I mean this data is easy to find uh and you get this 15 to2 million
36:51
number and people believe you because you have the power of authority I think
36:57
you’re Mis using it so anyway this uh no willing seller
37:04
argument is is false because hypothetically speaking if you throw a100 million dollars at that might bet
37:10
they would change their tune right so it’s just a matter of money if you make a fair offer then they will sell they’re
37:17
probably as tired of this as anybody else of this uh charade that’s been going
37:26
on I guess that that’s it
37:31
huh I’m trying to practice uh not writing any notes so that I get better at public speaking but I might have
37:37
forgotten a few things it’s okay thank
37:45
you Connie
37:50
cops hi um I’m here about 5.1 and um it’s not clear in the
37:57
beginning but it’ll be clear as I read on um our s public hearing item 5.1
38:05
13-5 um our city is unclear with its General planning for all of North Livermore and lands it’s preserving
38:13
there is an opportunity cost to all living in this area as a boundaries of who is responsible for what with land
38:20
owners and shell companies makes getting clear maps and any questions answered
38:25
with honesty impossible it is my firm belief that a general plan
38:30
with Zoning for it should be clear and concise so that all districts together
38:36
can view it in its entirety as all are affected by what you do and what you
38:42
approve it’s impossible to give honest input without that without the big
38:50
picture I do think also um that this land because it’s got to be after it it
38:58
um the the um I forget the parcel number is like 99b that it is a child to something and
39:07
when I called the county um about I think it was that parcel they couldn’t
39:13
tell me for some reason who owned it prior to them they said that wasn’t
39:19
public rec record so I don’t know why and I might have messed up something too
39:24
but I really do think it’s important to um go over with your whole Community the
39:31
past history and why things were preserved and again update your um
39:38
planning to include you know modern day thoughts even when like Public Works was
39:45
coming to my HOA in other part of Springtown when Darren Greenwood was
39:51
telling everybody at my HOA that the city owned our property and the golf
39:57
course was still going so Dynamics around it have also changed and there’s an opportunity cost for those other
40:04
people who also might want to propose some kind of building to you so try to be fair I say take your districts divide
40:13
your housing allocation by your number of districts and at least try to balance
40:19
it out and trick it in I don’t think that that Midtown well we’re getting on
40:24
another subject here so I’ll stop but thank you for taking what I said into consideration I really appreciate it
40:29
thank you thank
40:39
you and that is uh it for public comments um I will bring it uh I will
40:46
close the public comment period and bring it back up here to the commission for anybody that has any
40:53
comments anybody any comments
41:06
on um I believe it’s in the report but staff could you go over the the reason
41:13
for the offers as they were given previously sure the initial offer was
41:21
based on open space prices that we’ve used over time to acquire open space ranges anywhere from 8,000 up to 15,000
41:29
an acre so somewhere in that range uh and then the
41:37
um final offer I know there was one I think there’s one in between uh the
41:43
final offer of 1.78 million was uh direction from
41:49
the um or was suggested by the Altimont Landfill open space committee to re be
41:56
ined line with an acquisition that City
42:02
uh partnered with East Bay Regional Park District on a land across Laughlin road
42:07
that had Urban designations it was about 40,000 an acre um and that project that land is
42:14
now held by uh East Bay Regional Park District that was the price so they kind
42:20
of did some quick math and that that was the amount uh per acre I believe that
42:25
came up to that number and I’d have to look at the in the offer
42:32
I think there’s an offer in between those two numbers that I’m
42:39
not oh yeah and then finally looking at an offer um to look
42:49
at the fair market value of the property in other words have it appraised at its you know current value based on its
42:56
residential Des designations which would likely Drive the cost up pretty significantly and
43:02
those are the some of the numbers that are mentioned in the report so is it fair to say there’s a
43:09
there’s a cost basis of the parcel as open space land and there’s a cost basis
43:14
of the parcel hi develops in terms of its market value that’s right so we made an open space
43:21
value we made an offer that was consistent with another offer for urban designated lands that we were able to
43:28
acquire with the SP Park District and then offered to engage at a fair market
43:33
value conversation so that offer was comparable to the L per acre cost of
43:40
other partials that we’ve acquired recently that’s right
43:46
okay I might have more but I’ll pass off
43:51
for commiss CR one quick followup to commissioner
43:57
dunbar’s question um there were two sets of numbers in those reports ones were
44:03
the numbers in the offer letters that you just described uh along with the evaluations and where they came to and
44:10
from the the question I have is if all Bells were chiming um and
44:18
ultimately you know the other set of numbers that I were considering were the
44:24
city’s availability of money at all to make an offer that would be double or
44:30
triple the 1.7 million that was stated my understanding from all the financial
44:35
reports attached to this is we simply would not have the money to actually make that kind of offer as held against
44:42
our other priorities and things that we are otherwise maintaining is that
44:49
correct I think the short answer is yes and some of it would depend upon you
44:55
know a price that you could negotiate right um second question are
45:00
you aware of any community- based efforts to raise money to acquire the land from the property owner at a value
45:06
that would be higher than the $1.7 million that the city offered I am not okay thank
45:15
you thank you yeah commissioner L thank you I had more of a uh process question
45:25
um I saw in the uh staff report there’s reference to the uh California court of
45:30
appeal first appell at District so is everything um that we need to know is in
45:38
that judgment that came from the court in terms of the reason we’re here tonight the reason we’re recirculating
45:44
the E is it do I have that right yes that’s correct okay and
45:51
something that caught my ear as you mentioned was it the property you gave a
45:57
value of was it 40,000 an acre was that the Farber property yes and that’s what
46:02
the judge I think mentioned specifically in the court case was the Farber property
46:09
right as it
46:14
comparable they do I saw that in there he gave that as an example um so just
46:20
like since we’re only doing comments tonight I just wanted to uh highlight a couple things that I saw in the U um the
46:27
save the hill group versus city of Livermore um the judge cited mostly
46:33
cited other cases but I found a few that he just to be sure that when we’re
46:40
recirculating um the comment from me would be to make sure we look at the judgment and see what the judge is
46:47
asking for and uh so it could be evaluated you know In The End by the
46:52
decision makers but one of the comments was um the description this is citing the fishing game case the description
46:59
must be straightforward and intelligible assisting the decision maker and the public in ascertaining the environmental
47:06
consequences of doing nothing uh another I’ll just do two more
47:12
um the other item the judge said was the failure to include relevant information
47:19
precluded informed decisionmaking I think he he mentioned that he was citing the city council meeting and and
47:28
how um there wasn’t enough information on the no project so the judge mentioned
47:33
that and then one more um lacking adequate information regarding the no
47:39
project alternative the city council could not make an informed reason decision on whether this product should
47:45
go forward and so it goes along in that vein and I didn’t see anything else in
47:52
that eight or nine page judgment beyond the no project alternative
47:57
so that’s that’s my comment thank
48:02
you okay commissioner jumar uh just to be clear um in this the
48:12
scheme of the second offer that was made you the staff of the city of liore made
48:17
that offer because of the directive of the Altimont open space committee at that price is that correct that’s
48:23
correct thank you um
48:30
I thank the comments that I heard tonight I learned some new information that I appreciated
48:36
um about contact contract terms um I’m hoping to hear more about potential new
48:42
information that be may be of use when that letter comes in um forgive me because I take notes
48:49
because I wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the things but uh notes are good uh but I think that uh as by law
48:58
that all the comments received tonight will be responded to where
49:04
appropriate um and we’ll have to make a final decision when it comes back to us
49:09
that time thank you anybody else yeah I just
49:17
have one question uh for staff and and maybe the environmental consultant um
49:24
what would trigger a new eir and how would that be discovered in
49:32
this
49:44
process so I think with the court case it’s not as straightforward of an answer as it usually would be um rather than
49:51
answering tonight I’ll consult with your legal counsel and we’ll have a better answer in the finally hour
50:02
thank you anybody else um I just wanted to clarify one
50:10
thing um do we legally have any authority to take any action tonight as
50:17
a Planning Commission no you don’t other than the advertised activity in the notice which
50:24
is to receive public comment so even if we really really really wanted to we
50:29
legally could not that’s right correct um just wanted to clarify that um also
50:37
just a clarification um the reason we have uh the time limits for certain uh
50:43
amounts for certain people I mean for all people is that it’s the same for everybody that everybody gets a chance
50:48
to speak um and then I I don’t have any further
50:56
comments um I just want to um thank everybody for coming out
51:01
tonight um it’s really appreciated when people come out and uh come to these and
51:07
actually make their voices heard I really appreciate that uh um and please
51:13
when this does come back to us come um whether it you know we end up doing it
51:18
here or we end up doing it back at the council chambers please come give your
51:23
comments um and I really appreciate all that one thing that I will not
51:31
tolerate um that and please don’t assume that you anybody was a speaker of this
51:37
but I’m just going to say this as just is um classifying that we as a
51:46
commission do not care about any certain areas of um of town I I want to clarify
51:55
I lived 600 feet from this building I spent more time on the commission as a
52:02
resident of Springtown than I did anywhere else so I do do not classify people as
52:13
you know not caring for certain areas of town um because I do truly care about
52:20
this side of town um also uh in future please uh refrain
52:29
from any attacks on staff like calling them Liars or anything like that um they
52:35
are doing their job to the best of their ability if you truly do think that they are purposefully lying there are there
52:42
are legal channels and public records requests that you can make um of them um
52:48
but they do everything in the public eye and our public servants um so please um
52:54
refrain from any personal attack on them um and again I just want to
53:00
reiterate to everybody that came out tonight thank you I really do appreciate it and um we will definitely delve into
53:05
all the information that was provided tonight and uh when it comes back around to us thank you um is there anything
53:12
else from the commission anything else from
53:20
staff uh not on this end no okay then um that will end uh uh
53:27
5.1 and that will take us to item six which there is none and that will take
53:33
us to item seven matters initiated by Planning Commission and staff um does
53:38
anybody up here have anything yes commissioner cron I actually do want to piggyback on
53:46
one of the um notes that were made by several of the public commenting folks here tonight um I’m actually a huge
53:53
believer in community engagement as part of democracy and democracy and action
53:59
and honestly if we have the opportunity to take this on the road like we’ve done
54:04
tonight even though tonight the we know why we’re here because the main Council chamber is under renovation but if it is
54:12
not a logistical nightmare for staff to take this kind of meeting on the road
54:17
occasionally so that neighborhoods can be reached like this one um I would
54:22
absolutely love to know if that is possible and if we can do that more often I would be in full support of it
54:29
uh and also to piggyback on the chair’s comments I live about a mile and a half that way so yeah North Livermore is an
54:36
area that I do believe is one that I care about deeply and one that I know is
54:42
sometimes feels like the redheaded stepchild of livmore so there you go thank
54:48
you thank you um I have one item uh and
54:53
it is that we continue to pressure Cal Trans about the First Street Springtown
54:59
Boulevard overpass um I recently rode my bike
55:05
across it not tonight and I deliberately did not ride my bike tonight because of
55:11
that incidence it’s I’ve said it once before I’ve actually I’ve said it many times before
55:17
that we really need a change there and I know it’s very frustrating because that is calr owned operated and maintained um
55:27
but as a city we can still apply the pressure that we can to calr cuz it is
55:34
truly in need of some work um yeah anything else up here y commission D
55:42
Bar on that note I believe we had our what we wanted to do to repave that
55:47
stuck in a design decision designed standard decision document for I don’t
55:53
even know how long but I did ride my bike here over that overpass and it’s still not fun it’s been not fun for a
55:59
long time and it needs to be better and I think everybody knows that keep
56:04
pushing thank you do we have anything from staff no nothing extra from staff
56:11
okay nothing else
56:18
anybody do you want to ask staff personally afterwards or ask
56:24
I I wanted to ask L the the uh Planning Commission conference is happening in
56:30
September obviously and the Tuesday night following uh while the conference
56:36
is still happening down in Riverside there is an ordinarily scheduled Planning Commission meeting that it
56:41
might be wise to see if we could uh potentially move items away from since
56:47
all the Commissioners will be at the planning conference in Riverside that was
56:54
it okay yeah um anything else and we got nothing from
57:03
staff okay we’re all good okay then I will journ this meeting to our next
57:09
regularly scheduled meeting September 3rd I believe sorry if I have
57:15
got that date wrong let me double check yes September 3rd okay thank you this meeting is Jed
57:42
there
A video of the referenced Altamont Landfill Open Space Committee is posted on our Youtube channel
The Altamont Landfill Settlement Fund exists to buy and protect agricultural land from development. Working the system to its advantage as an insider, Livermore city staff nearly got away with acquiring millions of dollars in grant money to buy land – for itself! We consider the City’s action to be an abuse of the process.
On February 8th, they applied for $3.6 million in funding. The ALOSC Committee accepted the applications, and a special board meeting agenda was drafted the next day. When CBG heard about it, we intervened in every way we knew possible.
One week later, Livermore attended the hastily arranged gathering, poised to receive their payments. Committee Chair Shawn Wilson did exactly what a voting member should properly do. He listened to the facts without prejudgment, and guided the committee members to carefully consider the issues. Enthusiastic and passionate residents attended and pleaded their case. The votes were cast, and Livermore didn’t receive any money. The CitizensForBalancedGrowth.org website has a video of the meeting.
The next ALOSC meeting will be held on March 15th at 12:30, at the Public Works Building in Dublin, 4825 Gleason Drive. Livermore will likely try the same maneuver again. Everyone is encouraged to attend, and speak. Zoom is also available.
Since Livermore is currently attempting to eat up over a thousand acres east of Greenville, it adds credence to the argument that this Administration is no friend to open space protection. Grant funds intended for preservation should only be used for situations where land is actually being preserved, as through a parks department or land trust. Stewardship of environmental resources should never be entrusted to entities that may themselves become a threat.
We decided to share an excel template to make printing 1099-NEC forms easier.
Non-profits often use Quickbooks to manage their finances, and that can include sending out the form at the beginning of each year. Since Intuit has not updated their software to properly print these forms yet, we established a workaround to get folks through this year.
excel sheetWe hope this is helpful!
Board member Doug Mann found it was incredibly painless to get permitted and start producing energy at his home. Having gone through the process, this information would hopefully help others get headed in the right direction with fewer missteps.
This system is grid tied and uses the newer technology of microinverters. These inverters make just about everything easier, cheaper and better. String inverters on the other hand, while still appropriate in some cases, could add unwanted complexity.
Here’s the MS Word document was handed to Livermore Building department. They handed back a permit.
Livermore also has these handy reference documents
1-14 Photovoltaic Submittal (Residential)
1-14 Photovoltaic 2013 Code Changes Residential
The “hardest” part for some may be calculating the voltage rise, which should be done to figure out how big your copper wires must be so that the system runs efficiently. You can serach the internet for “Solar voltage rise calculator”. Enphase also makes a handy guide. EnphaseTechBrief_Vdrop_M250
Remember your ground wire needs to be #8 or larger in Livermore, regardless of your conductor size.
Search Craigslist for the solar panels and microinverters. In our high tech area, there are often great package deals offered on Craigslist for panels/inverters/racking. The south bay seems to always have inventory. Everything else you need is at the hardware store.