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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

September 30, 2005

Moment of truth for Pardee

IN DEPTH: RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE

On top of $134 million in gifts for parks and schools, Pardee promises Livermore Trails' 2,450 homes will be 100 percent solar-powered if voters approve Measure D.

"This is the first time a builder has stepped out and made such a huge commitment," said Carlene Matchniff, Pardee's vice president for community development. "Livermore will be the city with the longest running light bulb at the fire station and the largest solar community in the United States."

Solar panels and tankless water heaters are only the latest carrots in Pardee's three-year effort to develop North Livermore - the holy grail of East Bay developers for more than three decades.

Since the late 1960s, the property located north of Interstate 580 has been the subject of five development proposals, three local and countywide elections, and several lawsuits. It has raised politicians from obscurity, felled a few high-flyers and resurrected several careers.

Pardee's $134 million package of community benefits will come on top of the roughly $123 million it must pay in fees to the city of Livermore. On Nov. 8, Livermore voters will determine the fate of Pardee's proposal when they decide whether to move the urban growth boundary established by the City Council in 2002 to allow development of the 1,400 acres.

Matchniff, a 23-year home-building veteran, knows the stakes are high - and not just because of all the giveaways. Matchniff, who moved from San Diego to Livermore in early 2003, has made it her mission to develop the land that Pardee has owned for close to two decades, first in a partnership with Shea Homes and then as sole owner after Alameda County voters nixed plans for a larger project in 2000.

She believes the project's foes have a "classic case of NIMBY-ism." To soften their hearts, Pardee has contributed to every worthwhile cause in town and tempted the community with a sports park - probably the biggest carrot the company has dangled - as well as an elementary school and a high school.

"This is the most highly amenitized development per unit that I've seen," Matchniff said. "This is the smallest amount of housing units and the greatest amount of benefits per number. The old Shea (Homes) plan had over 12,000 homes and no 130-acre sports park. There was nothing this grand."

Joseph Perkins, president and CEO of the Home Builders Association of Northern California, said Pardee had little choice but to offer millions of dollars worth of perks to sway voters. But even he is surprised at the amount.

"I spent 15 years in San Diego and I have never seen any project in Northern or Southern California with the benefits and amenities of Livermore Trails," he said. "Not even close."

Rather than worry about what message the perks send to other cities considering developments, Perkins is more concerned about whether voters will reject what he described as a "model for infill smart growth."

"It would send a message that some selfish and myopic people in the region that have theirs really don't care about all the people who can't afford to live here," Perkins said.

But opponents of the project say they have worked too long and too hard to preserve the hills of North Livermore not to fight the current project, whatever the gifts.

Aware that the City Council majority opposed the project, Pardee knew it had to gain approval from Livermore residents. The company collected more than 9,500 verifiable signatures - significantly more than the 4,300 needed - to put the measure on the November ballot.

As of June, Pardee has spent more than $1 million on the campaign and probably will spend more than $2 million. Those against the project claim Pardee is on track to spend more than $3 million and have accused the company of "buying the election."

"The grassroots local group has been working for a long time and they are facing an opponent who has other interests beside the welfare of Livermore at heart," said David Reid, the East Bay field representative for Greenbelt Alliance.

Pardee, based in Los Angeles, is a subsidiary of the Washington state lumber company Weyerhaeuser - a fact that opponents use to characterize Pardee as both an outsider and a deep-pocket developer which stands to profit mightily.

An environmental 'disaster'

The biggest stick wielded by Friends of Livermore is the traffic congestion and pollution that would be generated by an estimated 38,000 daily vehicle trips. They are concerned about four major intersections that will be adversely affected by the project that Pardee is not obligated to address.

"The environmental stuff is a disaster," said Bob Baltzer, spokesman for Friends of Livermore. "Thirty-eight thousand car trips per day is just more than the city can handle regardless of what is attempted in the way of mitigation. And mitigate means to lessen, it does not mean to eliminate."

Livermore City Councilman Tom Reitter said he has read the 38-page initiative 15 times so far and was surprised to discover that Pardee is not mentioned even once in the document. Only the development's name, Livermore Trails, is cited. The omission worries him, he said, because Weyerhaeuser could sell the property.

"So who do you have a contract with?" he asked.

Not for sale

The company has no plans to sell the development or even a percentage of the lots, Matchniff said.

"We will not up and sell it," she promised. "Our business is builder and developer. Once we get the entitlements, we don't walk away from the communities. It's a big investment. We own it and we're going to make it happen."

Reitter worries that the project will open the floodgates to other developments.

"The valley will be paved over ridge top to ridge top," Reitter warned during a forum on the project.

Pardee counters that its donations have set the bar very high for future development.

Matchniff joked at one community forum that the next builder seeking to develop in North Livermore would be forced to build a major league stadium to win approval.

When Matchniff moved to Livermore to tackle the development, she called herself a coalition builder and said she planned to meet with people representing both sides of the issue.

She did not get her way.

"The biggest surprise is that the opposition is unwilling to discuss solutions and negotiate. In most communities, even the opposition will sit down and say: 'This is what we really want. This is what we want to achieve,'" Matchniff said. "Up here they have not given us an opportunity to talk about their solution."

Matchniff said she has talked with local Sierra Club members, but the regional group would not meet with her. When she discussed the project with Reid, she suggested that the Greenbelt Alliance establish criteria for projects outside the urban growth boundary that are balanced, green, high-density and transit friendly.

Otherwise, she told him, "What you're doing is creating sprawl, and saying no to good development."

Reid disagrees.

"In smart growth, as in real estate, the rule is location, location, location. And this location is very problematic," he said. "It's far from the downtown. It's on environmentally sensitive land and it's outside the urban limit line just established three years ago."

But Matchniff points out that the urban growth boundary was approved by just three council members in a town of 78,000 people.

Reid also objects to the process that Pardee is using to gain approval for the project. By not going through the usual channels - planning commission, design review committees and the city council - Pardee is sidestepping local and state laws designed to protect the environment and quality of life.

"The process they have chosen to pursue makes it much more difficult to ensure the project has fewer impacts," he said.

Matchniff said the City Council's opposition offered her no other choice. If the project fails, Matchniff plans to assess the voter tally and figure out where to go from there.

"We're so positive, we're not out there speculating on the negative," she said. "You saw Shea walk away, but we are a different group and this is our shot."

kconrad@bizjournals.com | 925-598-1427

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