Our rally in Blair Park is TODAY at 1 pm. This is a critical point as the Park and Planning Commissions will be holding their hearings imminently, and we need to raise awareness of the story poles showing the enormity of the project. Please come out and bring your friends and neighbors!

Also, we are now accepting donations via PayPal—just go to the Donate page and click on the “Donate” button. Thanks for your support!

URGENT ACTION ON MORAGA CANYON PROJECT (BLAIR PARK)

The Blair Park sports complex proposal of the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO) was recommended by the Recreation Commission as part of the city’s review process and is now headed to the Park Commission and to the Planning Commission.

THE CITY COUNCIL IS EXPECTED TO MAKE A DECISION SOON.  NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN TO THE COMMISSIONS!   The dates to get an email or letter in their packets are coming up quickly.  See dates & talking points below.

PLEASE WRITE OR SPEAK AT THE HEARINGS.

Email your comments to the staff (below) for distribution to Commissioners or by mail to the Park Commission or Planning Commission at the City Hall address below.

• Park Commission: email Mark Feldkamp: mfeldkamp@ci.piedmont.ca.us (submit emails by morning of Feb.14 to get in their packet that day)
• Planning Commission: email Kate Black: kblack@ci.piedmont.ca.us (Submit emails by morning of Feb. 17 to get in packet)

Park Commission Hearing: Thursday, Feb. 17, 5:30 p.m.
Planning Commission Hearing: Thursday, Feb. 24, 6:30 p.m.

Both meetings will be held in the City Council chambers, Piedmont City Hall, 120 Vista Ave. Piedmont, CA 94611.

Key Points for the Park Commission:

• The PRFO Project would remove 155 trees, including 55 mature live oaks.
• Blair Park is home to dozens of species of birds and other wildlife.
• Blair Park is the last remaining open space in Piedmont.
• Blair Park could be improved and better maintained with native planting.
• Blair Park is a gateway to Piedmont that could be a lovely, landscaped entrance to the city.
• Beautification is one of the Park Commission’s charges.  Carving deeply into a natural hillside, building a massive 325-foot long retaining wall up to 35 feet high, and constructing a “berm”and retaining wall up to 25-feet high along Moraga Avenue will not beautify this peaceful oak woodland.

Key Points for the Planning Commission:

• Project too massive for this narrow strip of land
• Huge impact on views from canyon homes overlooking the site
• 155 mature trees including 55 native oaks would be destroyed
• Cutting deeply into the hillside and constructing 35 foot retaining walls below homes could potentially cause landslides, an enormous liability to city
• Traffic would be even more impacted, especially weekday afternoons during rush hour
• Noise from sports complex travels up and is heard throughout entire canyon area
• The plan has no sidewalk at street level along the park
• To walk or bike to the park, children would need to cross the speeding traffic on Moraga and climb a long trail with swithchbacks up to the elevated sports fields
• View from drivers along Moraga Ave. negatively impacted by high berms/retainingwalls
• Retaining wall/berm is not set back from the road, extremely dangerous to bikers & walkers
• Insufficient parking will cause backups
• The PRFO project violates Piedmont’s General Plan in several areas, including:

PLEASE ACT NOW!

RALLY TO SAVE MORAGA CANYON

Saturday, Feb 12, 1:00 pm sharp
At Blair Park (across from Coaches Field)

• View the size and scope of the proposed plan
• See the story poles and what they mean
• Show support for Piedmont’s last open space

Bring your family, friends, dogs and hand-made signs! Join us on a guided tour of the site. Help us point out the many objections to this estimated $6 million project.

We will stand single file along Moraga Avenue, holding a large banner and our signs. (We have extra signs if you don’t have one.) If possible, carpool, walk or bicycle to Blair Park. Some parking is available at Coaches Field parking lot.

Join us for this worthwhile and fun event!

The San Francisco chapter of the Sierra Club posted their strong opposition to the development in Blair Park as a Response to the Draft Environmental Impact Report. They noted that specifically Piedmont members of the Sierra Club are “totally opposed” to the project citing concerns with the loss of native habitat for plants and animals, water retention problems, creating of new landfill in a seismically active area, increases in traffic, danger to pedestrians and bicyclists along Moraga Avenue and increased noise.

Kent Lewandowski, Chair of the Northern Alameda County Group of the Sierra Club, states that the club found “much to criticize with this project…with a Draft EIR that appears to conclude that the impacts on wildlife, neighbors and pedestrians are all not substantial enough to deter the project.” They found it further objectionable because “it serves the interest of a minority of the community…over the needs of wildlife and neighboring residents, including residents in nearby Oakland.” As a matter of interest, they concluded that “While the Sierra Club promotes less use of the automobile, it does not support removing wild spaces like Blair Park to create new destinations for pedestrians.” Finally, they urged City Council to cancel the project.

Click here to read the full letter (PDF).

On January 19, 2011, Michael Lynes, Conservation Director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, wrote to the Piedmont City Council and City Commissioners “on behalf of the nearly 10,000 members of Golden Gate Audubon Society to express our opposition to the proposed Moraga Canyon sports field project in the City of Piedmont.” Lynes cites that the project would “result in the destruction of a great deal of natural terrain, removal of native trees, clearing of hillside underbrush…that will ruin forever this quiet, secluded open space that is a haven for birds and other wildlife and will contribute to their continued decline in the Bay Area.”

The letter further noted that “many of the songbirds species found in Blair Park are declining in the Bay Area, primarily due to loss of habitat” and pointed out that the conclusion in the Environmental Impact Report that “the species have ‘adapted’ to suffering generation after generation of decline due to human activities undermines the credibility of the entire EIR.”

Click here to read the full text of the Audubon Society’s letter (PDF).