Dear Friends of Moraga Canyon,

Thank you for your continued support on our long journey to save Moraga Canyon.  We are facing a critical juncture, and we urgently need your attention and your help once again.

The City Council will review PRFO’s “final” plans for Blair Park at a public hearing on Monday, December 5th in City Council chambers at 7:30 pm. At this meeting, they may well vote to approve the project.

In order to be as well prepared as possible for this meeting, we are asking our FOMC attorney, Gabriel Ross, of Shute/Mihaly/Weinberger LLP, and traffic consultant Tom Brohard to review and critique the latest City/PRFO environmental documents and traffic plan. Their reviews are essential to persuade the City to undertake a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report, and not just pass off a simple EIR addendum. We need your immediate financial support to raise significant funds to cover these vital analyses and other legal expenses.

Here is the current status of the proposed project:

• The “gift” that keeps on taking has now cost the city over $300,000 in various costs and lawyer fees, as well as countless hours of staff time, easily valued at several hundred thousand more dollars. This comes during a time when the schools are in financial crisis, and the city faces a deficit over expenditure commitments and public works project mismanagement.
• The “final” plans for the Blair Park sports field project were not made public until after Friends of Moraga Canyon filed a Public Records Request. The city responded by publishing the plans on the city website.
• The City Council and staff have permitted project proponents and their attorneys to act as special counsel to the City Attorney, leading to a clear conflict of interest. This decision was made in closed session with no public discussion or vote (see articles on the PCA website and the Piedmont Patch).
• On the advice of the PRFO attorneys, the city is planning to produce a simple addendum to the original EIR in response to the many changes that have been made to the project. Prominent land-use attorneys Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger, retained by FOMC and paid for by your generous donations, have concluded that due to the constantly shifting nature of the project as well as the many serious flaws in the original EIR, the city is legally required to produce a full Supplemental EIR, not just a simple addendum. (Please read their analysis, as well as a detailed traffic analysis by engineer Tom Brohard, on our website).

Despite nearly four years of strong, reasoned opposition to this ill-conceived, dangerous and destructive project by many Piedmont residents, as well as the City of Oakland, the Sierra Club, the Golden Gate Audubon Society, and Piedmont’s own Planning Commission, PRFO is ramping up to steamroll this project through the City Council. The publicity blitz in recent issues of the Piedmont Post confirms our fears.

The City Council meeting on December 5th will be crucial, and we need your immediate help!

Here’s what you can do:

• Write to the City Council members and tell them your objections. A list of key points to make on the issues is available on our website. You can email the City Council via the City Clerk at jtulloch@ci.piedmont.ca.us, or by mail to Piedmont City Hall, 120 Vista Ave, Piedmont, CA 94611.
• Write to the local press to publicize our opposition. Here are links to directly email the Piedmonter, the Piedmont Post, the Piedmont Patch, the Piedmont Civic Association, the Montclarion, and the Oakland Tribune. You can also submit letters to the SF Chronicle via the SFGate website.
• Attend the City Council meeting on Dec. 5th at 7:30 pm in the City Council chambers at 120 Vista. Speak during public comment, or just come out to show your support.
• Talk to neighbors and friends and ask them to visit moragacanyon.org to sign our petition and join our email list. We know there are many people out there who oppose this project but have remained silent so far—now is the time to speak out.
• Donate. http://www.moragacanyon.org/donate has a PayPal button that makes it easy. Immediate donations will pay for legal responses and an expert traffic analysis of the “final” plan.

If we are to win this battle, we need immediate donations to help pay for our ongoing legal expenses and traffic analysis of the “final” plan. Further, if the Council approves the plan on December 5th without the Supplemental EIR required by CEQA, we then will have 30 days to take legal action.  PRFO is weighing how serious the opposition is. With the weight of reason on our side—and with the strength of your continued support—we can show them just how serious we are.

With your help, we know we can put a stop to this poorly planned, unnecessary, and destructive project that has caused such divisiveness in our community. Thank you once again for everything you do.