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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

June 27, 2002

Bay Area News Roundup - Breaking News

Subheading

Opponents of a 1,400-unit project proposed on land adjacent to the city of Danville are regrouping for a last-ditch fight after Contra Costa County supervisors voted late Tuesday night to approve it.

During a break in the seven-hour hearing on the project, board chairman John Gioia said that the supervisors would delay voting on the Camino Tassajara Integrated Project until the next board meeting on July 9.

But instead, Gioia called for a vote on a motion offered by Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier some time after 11 p.m. Save Mount Diablo land programs director Seth Adams said Wednesday that many of those who had opposed the development were likewise told that no vote would be taken on the issue before July 9.

As a result, Adams said, they left the board chamber long before DeSaulnier moved to close the public hearing on the issue and "move the board's intention to approve the project.''

The supervisors voted 4-1 in favor of the project.

DeSaulnier's motion also directed county staff to work with the developers to incorporate language providing for the creation of development agreements between the developers and the county setting out the terms of an $8,000 per unit fee to be paid on 1,100 units of "market rate'' housing in the project costing up to $1.3 million each. The fee would go into an as yet undefined "livable communities trust fund.''

Supervisor Donna Gerber, complaining that DeSaulnier's motion violated board protocol because as the supervisor in whose district the project was proposed she normally would make the first suggestion on how to proceed, proposed that the board wait until July to close the public hearing and make no statement about the board's "intention.''

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