Thanks once again to everyone who expressed their support for Moraga Canyon by writing the Piedmont City Council or attending the meeting. Unfortunately, the Council voted unanimously to move ahead with the EIR, despite hours of detailed testimony by attendees as to why it would be premature to do so. We will now need to engage with the EIR process to ensure that our concerns are addressed at that stage.

Here’s a report from the Council meeting by Sandra Pohutsky:

At the end of an extremely late meeting Monday, September 21, 2009, the Piedmont City Council voted to send the revised design of the “Moraga Canyon Sports Complex” to the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) consultant, despite numerous issues and problems raised by speakers who stayed until 2:30 am to be heard. Among the issues raised:

1. An EIR is not a substitute for a reasonable planning process. The destruction of Blair Park in order to erect the “Moraga Canyon Sports Complex” has not been widely discussed in Piedmont. There have been no community workshops. It has not been presented for review by the appropriate city commissions. The construction and maintenance costs are unknown.
2. No independent needs analysis has been conducted and no cost-benefit analysis has been performed.
3. An EIR only looks at a single specific proposal and assesses its deficiencies. It does not assess whether the proposed project is necessary, or whether there are better or lower-cost alternatives available.

Speakers requested that the City of Piedmont take the following crucial steps before conducting an EIR:

• Appoint an advisory committee to determine the wishes of the entire community
• Prepare a needs analysis
• If the community wants more athletic fields, consider all possible sites, including but not limited to new Merritt College fields, Mountain View cemetery, future joint use of Alameda Point, and the new field under construction at Havens Elementary
• Determine actual usage time of existing fields, not just “reserved time”, since reserved fields are not always used
• Publish the intended hours of use for any new sports fields
• Hire an impartial, highly experienced traffic consultant to prepare a traffic/pedestrian safety study
• Reveal how pedestrians will be able to walk safely along Moraga Avenue and how they will cross Moraga if they choose not to use the pedestrian bridge.
• Provide multiple realistic drawings of the proposed Sports Complex
• Provide clear illustrations of the proposed pedestrian bridge from all angles
• Explain how the parking lots are large enough to accommodate participants on two sports fields
• Work with the City of Oakland on traffic safety and other common interests
• Reveal what traffic safety measures are intended

Other speakers focused on the proposed high night lights at Coaches Playfield, reminding the council that the Piedmont City Council had agreed that there would be NO lights at Coaches Playfield when the site was built and that no nighttime lighting is specified in the Piedmont City Code. One asked how we could trust a future Council not to try to install night lights at the proposed Moraga Canyon Sports Complex if Councils felt entitled to break prior agreements.

After listening to extensive public comment, the city council voted 5-0 to send the revised design for Moraga Canyon Sports Complex to LSA Associates, Inc, Berkeley, to prepare an EIR.