How many times to say "No" to development at Patterson Ranch?

Once more developer Richard Frisbee is proposing development at Patterson Ranch in northern Fremont.

The Patterson site is bordered by Coyote Hills Regional Park, the Crandall Creek Trail, the Alameda Creek Trail, and the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. An integral part of one of the area's richest remaining ecosystems, its 429 acres provides a much-needed buffer for wildlife. Its willow run along Patterson Slough was identified in the 1999 Bay Area Wetlands Ecosystem Goals Project as a rare and valuable riparian habitat with unique restoration opportunities and possibilities.

Situated along the approach road to Coyote Hills, the willow run adds immeasurably to the outdoor experience for thousands of recreational users, amateur naturalists, and children arriving on their first classroom fieldtrips. "Teachable moments" begin from the instant a school bus turns onto Patterson Ranch Road and travels through the open space for over a quarter of a mile before reaching the park's entrance. Kids are afforded wide-open views of the willow run and out to the hills beyond. One may see ducks, shorebirds, raptors, and deer.

Over a dozen years ago, a high-density development was proposed for Patterson. The Fremont Planning Commission did a thorough study and concluded that the open-space designation should be maintained.

In December 2001 Frisbee applied to change the designation to residential use so that he could build a high-density development of 1,800 homes and a strip mall. Grassroots organizations and the public responded overwhelmingly, telling Fremont to protect the open space and the park. The development proposal was withdrawn.

Now the developer has returned with political consultants touting a more "environmentally sensitive" development. They have held community meetings to try to sell their project. At one meeting, after their pitch, they asked the audience what it wanted for the site. The answers were consistent:

• no filling in of low-lying lands;
• protect the views;
• keep the silence;
• preserve the wetlands;
• keep the open space;
• protect the archeological remains;
• no commercial development.

In other words, keep it as it is now.

The developers' pitch that development can somehow improve this place aesthetically has been overwhelming rejected by the public. People understand that development will forever devastate this sensitive area, and slick marketing will not change this fact.

Architect Ken Kay tries to paint the project as "new urbanism". This is nonsense. If we make no other change in development patterns, we need to focus development around BART (and other mass transit routes), not on the doorstep of our most treasured natural places.

Friends of Coyote Hills and Fremont is a grassroots group focused on preserving the open-space designation at Patterson Ranch. We formed in February 2000 with five members, but today more than 3,000 people from Fremont and all over the Bay Area have signed our petition asking the Fremont City Council to maintain the open-space designation for this sensitive land.

What You Can Do

Please help preserve this very special place. We need volunteers to help educate local officials and residents about the value of this site and what will be lost forever if development is allowed to take place.

We expect the city to schedule crucial hearings in coming months, but we don't yet know when. Please join our list, so that we can alert you when your presence or letter-writing is needed. Contact Sierra Club Bay Chapter conservation director Mike Daley at (510) 848-0800, ext. 304, or email mdaley-at-sfbaysc.org; or visit Friends of Coyote Hills and Fremont or call (510) 793-5329.

Dan Ondrasek, Friends of Coyote Hills and Fremont