Time to get auto-racing out of Alameda County greenbelt
In 2000, when Alameda County voters passed Measure D to protect the greenbelt lands in the eastern part of the county, was a NASCAR speedway the kind of agricultural use they intended to preserve?
If not, why is the county considering a rezoning application that would allow the Altamont Speedway to drastically increase its operations?
Even worse, why does the project's Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), released in July, lack analysis of at least 18 sections of the East County General Plan that the proposal would violate?
How have the speedway owners, without any permit, gotten away in the last two years with nearly $2 million worth of building improvements, new track configurations, and grading and paving projects? Even though the speedway's conditional-use permit expired in February 2006, it conducted races anyway - even some that would not have been permitted under the expired permit! County officials notified the owners of the violations, but have done little, if anything, to enforce the citations.
Inadequate EIR
The DEIR fails in many respects to meet the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act for analysis and mitigation of significant impacts. The DEIR places arbitrary limits on mitigation for cumulative impacts to air quality and global warming. The East County General Plan sets noise limits at 60 dBA (A-weighted decibels), but the DEIR uses a baseline of 95 dBA. Further, the DEIR fails to take into account the General Plan's requirement for buffers to mitigate noise levels over 60 dBA. The DEIR also gives inadequate mitigation of noise and traffic.
The cursory analysis of biological resources starts with the incorrect assumption that the site is already used seven nights a week, and then omits concerns such as vehicle strikes, pets, trash and food litter, trampling, and loss of habitat. It gives inadequate analysis of cumulative impacts or impacts to movement corridors. The plan gives inadequate mitigations for impacts on biological resources, including endangered species. It neither meets its stated goal - which we believe is infeasible - of maintaining the current level of species use at the site, nor defines any alternative off-site mitigation. Many deferred mitigation measures lack performance criteria. The plan would allow the applicant to continue racing activity and to defer most mitigation indefinitely.
The site has natural wetlands and is situated in a corridor known to be traveled by the endangered San Joaquin kit fox. Other endangered species with high potential to utilize the site include the burrowing owl, California red-legged frog, and California tiger salamander. It is also a habitat for raptors including golden eagles, and for several rare plant species.
The land-use section of the DEIR is fundamentally flawed as well. It completely ignores at least 18 policies, provisions, and mandatory requirements of the East County General Plan which unquestionably relate to the Altamont Project. The DEIR's omissions from analysis include:
- the General Plan's mandatory language requiring the elimination of uses incompatible to agriculture (program 28);
- the requirement for buffers between agricultural and non-agricultural or incompatible uses (Policy 73 and Program 29);
- noise limitations, mitigations, and buffer zone for uses that exceed 60 decibels (Policies 288 - 290);
- the very purpose of the East County Plan to "preserve and enhance agriculture and agricultural lands... from excessive, badly located, and harmful development"(Section 1).
If these General Plan policies had been properly considered, the DEIR could not have concluded that the expanded Speedway would have only one inconsistency with the East County Plan.
The DEIR doesn't even mention that in 1972 the Board of Supervisors specifically deleted race tracks as a conditional use in an agricultural district. The DEIR fails to mention that Measure D requires voter approval before any zoning changes can be made in this area.
WhatYouCanDo
The DEIR is available at www.acgov.org/cda/planning/altamont_report.htm
The official comment deadline for the DEIR was Sep. 8, but you can still submit comments that will be made part of the record in the final EIR. Write to:
Jana Beatty, Senior Planner
Alameda County Planning Department
224 West Winton Ave.
Hayward, CA 94544;
Write also to the Planning Commission at the same address; and to the Supervisors, who will make the ultimate decision. You can write to:
Clerk of the Board
1221 Oak St., #536
Oakland, CA 94612
Ask the Clerk to distribute your letters to all the supervisors, or contact your personal supervisor at:
Scott Haggerty (District 1)
district1@acgov.org
(510)272-6691
fax: (510)208-3910
Gail Steele (District 2)
dist2@acgov.org
(510)272-6692
Alice Lai-Bitker (District 3)
BOSDist3@acgov.org
(510)272-6693
fax: (510)268-8004
Nate Miley (District 4)
BOSdist4@acgov.org
(510)272-6694
fax: (510)670-5717
Keith Carson (District 5)
dist5@acgov.org
(510)272-6695
fax: (510)271-5151.
Urge the county to reject the DEIR as entirely inadequate and to reject the re-zoning application in its entirety for violations of the letter and the spirit of the East County General Plan.