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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
August 10, 2007
All sides claim
victory in East Cypress ruling
Ruth Roberts
A judge recently ruled that the city of Oakley in its plan to build homes
along the East Cypress Corridor has done a good job providing for the safety
of levees and an endangered hawk; however, it hasn’t done a good enough
job preserving air quality and farmland.
Greenbelt Alliance filed the lawsuit in Superior Court in an effort to stem
the development of 3,500 new homes the environmental group claims are a threat
to plants and animals. The group also is concerned that the old levees in that
area could fail, creating the potential for flooding.
City Manager Bryan Montgomery called the court ruling fair, and said he believes
the remaining issues can be easily dealt with.
“
It is reassuring to know that the EIR for the East Cypress area was solid,” he
said. “The city will proceed with further analysis on the two areas that
the judge ruled needed further review. We don’t see any significant delays,
and the plan, including all the benefits to the community, will proceed. We
know that this will be a great addition to Oakley.”
Greenbelt Alliance Field Representative Christina Wong called the ruling a
positive step in the right direction.
“
This is a huge victory for us,” she said. “It means that they will
have to redo their EIR, which will hopefully improve the quality of the project.
We wanted to show that there are issues with this project, and we wanted to
highlight the need for improvements, and that’s what we did.”
Also happy with the ruling were the developers planning to build homes along
the East Cypress Corridor.
“
We are extremely pleased that the judge recognized the city of Oakley’s
close evaluation of the project’s new levees and proposed protections
for Swainson’s hawk,” said homebuilder spokesman Dave Hyams. “New
homes will be protected by the safest levees in the Delta, and existing homes
will be protected by additional pumps, new emergency routes and added maintenance
for funding for existing perimeter levees.”
The area in dispute concerns 2,500 acres on Hotchkiss Tract planned for development
with homes, parks and schools. More than 2,000 acres of that land were annexed
by the city last year.
What the ruling means is that further development in that area will be delayed
while the outstanding issues are worked out.
“
Delay means a longer wait for the social and environmental benefits included
in this plan,” said Hyams. “That’s all on hold until another
round of environmental review is completed.”
The next step in the process is for the city to await the final judgment from
the Superior Court, which should come within the next 30 days, according to
City Attorney Alison Barrat-Green. The document will tell the city how to fix
the shortcomings in air quality and farmland, and at that point the City Council
will decide whether or not to appeal the decision.
Should the council choose not to appeal, city staff would most likely be instructed
to implement the requested changes on air quality and farmland.
Judge Diana Becton Smith ruled that Oakley did not do a study to determine
the impact on the air quality in connection with the new homeowners’ possible
use of items such as barbecues and lawn mowers. With respect to farmland, the
judge ruled that the city did not provide enough detail regarding the relocation
of cows in that area.
Community Development Director Rebecca Willis said the two issues are relatively
minor and should be simple to remedy.
“
We did analyze the air quality in general, but did not analyze the air quality
that homebuyers might generate,” said Willis. “So we will have
our air quality consultant look at that and do an evaluation.
“
What the court said about the Ag resources was that we basically did not give
a clear enough road map,” said Willis, adding that it would be a good
bet that the cows could be moved onto nearby habitat conservation land, for
which the city has allocated a few hundred acres.
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