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Pictures and maps of Gateway Valley
Overview of the threat
Letters, documents and links
Hearings and events Letters Needed
Rare and endangered species
A Few Biology Issues for the Proposed Gateway Valley Development
Letter from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board
Letter from the E.P.A. to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
ORGANIZED FOES - SOS Orinda, Sierra Club and
Audubon Society - HAVE DECLARED DEVELOPMENT COMPROMISE TO BE VICTORY. OPEN LANDS TO BE LOST, BUT NOT IN
SUCH AS NASTY WAY AS FIRST ANNOUNCED.
See
the Audubon newsletter, The Gull. Is this a victory? The reader is left that exercise. Will there be more
organized opposition? So far
as this website is aware, no.
The Feds announced that the July 28 2004
workshop was to be "the final opportunity for public input regarding
this project before the Corps makes its permit decision." See informal workshop notes.
As expected, the developer confirmed to
the US Army Corps of Engineers that they have revised the project to
eliminate the planned luxury golf course. This was good news, though there
are still questions about whether that land and the wildlife that depends
on that corridor can or should sustain a housing development of any kind,
and about water table issues and the artificial wetlands proposed for
mitigation when the frog habitat is destroyed. We are witnessing a major blow and permanent damage to
the Bay Area Greenbelt. It’s
up to each of us to decide if it is the best we could have done.
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Gateway Valley in August -
North towards Orinda
The Gateway controversy in a
nutshell:
A planned luxury housing development threatens to destroy the hidden
Gateway Valley, a critical 1,000-acre section of the wildlife corridor of
the East Bay hills. Blocked previously by local objections, the current
prospective developer is pushing to build at Gateway Valley, a vital home
of threatened species and year-round fresh spring water in the portion of
the greenbelt near Orinda. The applicant has also bought open space in
the lovely adjacent Indian Valley, for "mitigation" purposes.
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Did we all save it? Sort of. Write the media if you have
feelings about what could have been. And prepare to fight for Indian
Valley in the years to come.
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One of Gateway Valley's
creeks in the spring
WHY IS THE CITY OF ORINDA IN
FAVOR OF THIS WHEN SO MANY RESIDENTS OPPOSE IT?
In October of 2001, at a federal hearing, the Army Corps of
Engineers officially announced one shocking correction to their published
public notice describing the application:$10 million dollars has already
been paid out to the City of Orinda by the prospective developers, even
though the federal permit has not been issued. The cash-strapped town must
repay this money if the development is not built.
This payoff can't help but raise some ethical questions. Is this
blood money for the wildlife currently living in the valley? Do City of
Orinda officials know how this looks? This appears to have placed the city
in a position where it cannot be impartial.
WHAT DOES THIS PROJECT LOOK LIKE NOW?
In December 2004 the Montanera corporation held a meeting in Orinda
about dropping the golf element of the plan. Information on that
meeting and the next generation of the plan, including large maps are
online at the Orinda site.
The developer presented new maps at that time with "bubbles of
potential development" drawn on. City Councilmembers Hawkins and
Wheatland formed a subcommittee to come up with recommendations for what
kind of housing should be built. Issues mentioned in passing by the public,
the developer and the council included the "staleness" of the
original EIR detailing the environmental impacts, questions about trail
locations to preserve the endangered Whipsnake, desirable traffic patterns,
questions as to whether designating mitigation space in Indian Valley,
outside of the City of Orinda, means the county of Contra Costa now has
jurisdiction or concerns, and a statement that the Center for Biological
Diversity now intends to raise the funds to sue and stop this project
should it ever gain final approval.
Unless there is the will and fundraising to follow up with that
tact, the houses will be built soon.
This is a good time to take your “place nobody knew” images of the
area. Actually, many people
jog, walk and even dog walk there every day. Respect the habitat for as long as we can, please.
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