By Sonia Diermayer
A residential development called Tassajara Parks in southeastern Contra Costa County is threading the needle to become a dangerous breach in the county’s Urban Limit Line—a bad precedent that could be followed by other similar developments. Additional problems that would be caused or exacerbated by this project include loss of agricultural lands, increased car traffic, carbon emissions contributing to climate change, and impacts to water resources potentially as far away as the Mokelumne River watershed in the Sierra Foothills.
Tassajara Parks’ developer, FT Land LLC, is proposing to build 125 single-family homes on 30 acres in the Tassajara Valley just outside of the Contra Costa Urban Limit Line east of Danville and San Ramon. The proposal includes what would appear to be some public benefits, such as conveyance of a chunk of land to the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) and public trail access in another parcel. But these benefits and the project’s relatively small size obscure the fact that it represents a camel’s nose under the tent of Contra Costa Urban Limit Line. Furthermore, the proposal flouts the Bay Area’s Sustainable Communities Strategy, which is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by building in already established urban areas near transit.
The Urban Limit Line is a powerful tool that Contra Costa voters passed as Measure C in 1990 to ensure that new development occurs within certain boundaries, thus protecting the county’s remaining agricultural lands, open space, and wild lands from sprawl. As a result of additional provisions passed as Measure L in 2006, most proposals to build outside the Urban Limit Line would need voter approval. But there is a loophole whereby developments of 30 acres or less can get the go-ahead with only a 4/5 vote of the county Board of Supervisors, as long as the Board can make a “finding” from a list of specified circumstances.
The residential portion of Tassajara Parks has been trimmed down to 30 acres from its earlier iterations to slip through this loophole. The “finding” which the developer aims to qualify under is a “preservation agreement” Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of San Ramon, the Town of Danville, EBRPD, and the county. The great irony is that the areas in question don’t need further preservation as they are already preserved by the county’s General Plan, zoning ordinances, and the Urban Limit Line—layers of protections that would be seriously eroded by provisions of the MOU and approval of Tassajara Parks.
Most concerning is that this MOU is generic. Once approved, it would apply to all of Contra Costa County and could be used by any developer of 30 acres or less to apply for an extension of the Urban Limit Line. According to advocates from Tassajara Valley Preservation Association, by dedicating 500 acres for non-urban use and donating $4 million to the county, a developer could fulfill the preservation agreement “finding” and ensure consideration from the Board of Supervisors. This could open the gates for a stampede of other mini-developments to pass, further trampling the county’s protective land-use policies and violating the intent of the voters when they instituted the Urban Limit Line.
Besides the breach of the Urban Limit Line, there are other troubling aspects to the Tassajara Parks saga. In order for the development to move forward, the county would also have to change the parcels’ land use designations from Agricultural Lands to Single-family Residential and others, and alter the parcels’ zoning from Exclusive Agricultural District to Planned Unit District. Making such changes to benefit a single development would seriously violate the stated goals and policies of those foundational county planning instruments.
Furthermore, serving water to the Tassajara Parks project would require the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EMBUD) to extend the borders of its service area, undermining the agency’s long-term water-supply planning efforts. EBMUD opposes this extension. A second option under consideration by the developer would be to buy water from Calaveras Public Utility District on the Mokelumne River. This arrangement could compromise local water supply and economies in the Sierra Foothills, increase net diversions from the river, and add further stress on that riparian ecosystem.
The County’s Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (R-DEIR) for Tassajara Parks failed to call out these impacts and others, including increased car use and vehicle miles traveled. The R-DEIR did appropriately identify some other impacts as significant and unavoidable, including violations to the Clean Air Plan and increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Next steps
County staff anticipates that both the final EIR document for Tassajara Parks and the preservation agreement MOU will come to the Planning Commission for a vote in late February or March. Activists feel that both are likely to be approved. It will be very important for commissioners to hear from Contra Costa residents who share grave concerns about both pieces.
If approved at the Planning Commission, the MOU will then go to a formal vote at the two cities, San Ramon and Danville. According to local advocates, Danville seems to be holding firm against signing the MOU. San Ramon’s City Council, on the other hand, appears more likely to approve it. Activists would do well to be at those meetings and voice their opposition.
If approved by both cities, the approvals of both the MOU and Tassajara Parks would return to the full county Board of Supervisors for their final approval. This may be the last opportunity to stop a very determined camel from getting its nose under the tent, and our last chance to hold onto the Contra Costa Urban Limit Line!
WhatYouCanDo
- Take action! Send a message opposing the MOU and the Tassajara Parks project online at http://tinyurl.com/tassajaraparksalert.
- Write letters to the editors of the East Bay Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
- Request that John Oborne, Senior Contra Costa County Planner, put you on a list for notification when meetings about Tassajara Parks are scheduled. Email john.oborne@dcd.cccounty.us.
- Email Tassajara Valley Preservation Association at tassajaravalleypa@gmail.com and request to be kept updated about Tassajara Parks.
Image: Map of the proposed project site, courtesy Contra Costa County Department of Conservation and Development, GIS Group.