Land use and the Bay Chapter - Part I
In planning this issue of the Yodeler, we entered a broad field. A large portion of the Bay Chapter's work, and the work of the whole Sierra Club, concerns protecting land. Often we try to use narrower categories, such as housing and infill development, stopping sprawl, protecting habitat, or parks and public lands, even when they overlap, but since it's been a while since we had covered any of these in a special issue, we decided to put them all together. These articles, of course, represent just a sampling of our work to defend the land.
Even in urban San Francisco we find a wide variety of these concerns.
- Lennar's controversial plan for redevelopment of Hunters Point and Candlestick Point would damage a state park and its precious habitat, as well as impact the existing low-income neighborhood.
- Path-building and -widening at the Strybing Arboretum could change the ambiance of one of the special areas of Golden Gate Park.
- Plans to install artificial turf and establish rental-only sports fields would push local users out of neighborhood parks, but a local community has come together with the Sierra Club to oppose the change.
- Parking could overwhelm sustainability in redevelopment planning for Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands.
In the East Bay we also find a close juxtaposition of urban concerns with parks and habitat.
- The East Bay Regional Park District is learning to manage vegetation to both preserve natural values and protect against fire in the urban-wildland interface.
- Emeryville is again trying to route a trail through the Emeryville Crescent. Such human presence would compromise the area as a wildlife preserve.
- Antioch is trying to construct a transit village, but BART may place the new eBART station half a mile away, and funding is in danger for Contra Costa's Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) program.
- Moraga residents are appealing the approval of the Rancho Laguna project on the city's ridgeline.
- A developer is asking the Union City Council to place on the ballot a development that would break through the city's Urban Growth Boundary.
- Pittsburg is annexing the Los Medanos Hills. This action could make it harder to stop development here.
- Richmond needs to keep shoreline open-space protections in its General Plan update.
Marin County is updating its Local Coastal Program, and we must keep the Planning Commission from weakening protections.
The Chapter also works on state and national land issues:
- We work with the California/Nevada Desert Committee to stop destructive activities by off-road vehicles.
- The Chapter Wilderness Committee is helping to co-sponsor the Western Wilderness Conference on April 8 - 11. It's time for early-bird registration, and there are lots of ways that you can help with the event.
Sprinkled in this Yodeler also are a number of short updates and alerts about other land-use issues.
In case that's not enough, we will be running more land-use articles in the coming issue.