Fremont Council finally to decide on Patterson Ranch development

Soon the Fremont City Council will be voting whether to approve development at Patterson Ranch, on vital buffer lands adjacent to Coyote Hills Regional Park.

For 20 years developers have vacillated, bringing forward proposals for these lands and then withdrawing them in the face of heated public opposition. For 20 years Fremont residents have been saying no - do not develop here, especially on the portion west of Ardenwood Boulevard, the natural buffer separating the intensively developed lands of the city from the open space, ecologically diverse habitats, and scenic views of the park.

Community opinions are clear. A 2006 survey conducted by David Binder Research concluded that:

• 72% of Fremont voters want to maintain a permanent buffer around the park and limit development of the area as a whole;
• a staggering 79% of Fremont voters want to stop the Patterson Ranch development entirely or limit development in front of the Coyote Hills in exchange for development away from the park.

Even when San Mateo-based development proponent Richard Frisbie conducted workshops in 2005, 75% of the participants did not want development west of Ardenwood Boulevard.

The new development plan, however, merely shifts the development around, placing 800 houses to the east side of Ardenwood Boulevard but shifting acres of private "spiritual facilities", schools, sports fields, and associated roadways, parking lots, and lighting to the west side, directly in front of Patterson's precious willow groves.

The owners have said that they intend to donate these delineated wetland acres to the East Bay Regional Park District or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but they have not made these lands an official part of the development agreement so that they can capture the tax benefits associated with a land donation. Acreage that is donated as a condition of a development agreement receives no tax benefit.

Why is Patterson Ranch important?

In 2002 Terrain magazine quoted naturalist and ornithologist Howard Cogswell as saying: "At least 173 bird species, including such uncommon ones as tri-colored blackbirds, golden eagles, and white-tailed kites have been observed in the park and the ranch area." Developing the ranch would gobble up prime "herb-covered hunting space for open-space birds." Terrain cited Cogswell as indicating that "losing habitat would affect meadowlarks, pheasants, winter-foraging ducks, migrating shorebirds, and especially raptors, including hawks and owls that forage in the open grasslands."

The article quotes a long list of other experts:

• "One of the Bay's last pre-European habitats runs through the ranch and park," according to a 1999 study sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board.
• "The diked wetlands east of Coyote Hills (Patterson Ranch) support the largest remaining willow groves in the baylands ecosystem," said the Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Report.
• "It is the rarest of all mosaics left in the Bay Area," said Josh Collins of the San Francisco Estuary Institute. "The particular blend of riparian, willow grove, seasonal wetland, and tidal marsh preferred by indigenous peoples is almost completely gone except [at] Coyote Hills."
• "The chances of hitting [Ohlone] cemetery sites are very high," says archaeologist Alan Leventhal of San Jose State University. "It was a densely occupied locality with a variety of mortuary sites that spanned thousands of years."

Traffic and parking

By siting the elementary school across a major arterial from the housing development, the developer guarantees that small children would have to walk across multiple lanes of traffic every day, or else their parents would have to drive them to school. Not counting the school, there would be close to 10,000 new car trips a day from the residences alone.

The development plan calls for individual parking lots for each of the schools, playing fields, and other facilities. The City Council and the School Board should collaborate on opportunities to share parking so that the development footprint can be reduced and all services placed east of Ardenwood Boulevard.

WhatYouCanDo

To be placed on the city's mailing list for the Patterson Ranch Development Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR), scheduled for release in mid-April, call the Fremont Planning Department, at (510) 494-4440, or e-mail Scott Ruhland at sruhland -at- ci.fremont.ca.gov

Attend the public hearing that the City Council will then schedule and/or write to the Council. Urge councilmembers to require the developer to reduce the development footprint so that all development is located east of Ardenwood Boulevard, away from the sensitive biological and archeological resources of the regional park.

To work with the Sierra Club on this issue and to be notified when it is time to speak up, contact conservation organizer or call (510) 848-0800, ext. 306

The Friends of Coyote Hills web site will include information on upcoming letter-writing efforts and City Council meetings.

Jana Sokale and Dan Ondrasek, Friends of Coyote Hills