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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

May 12, 2005

Bike riders stop for N. Livermore

They make claim that homes would hurt plants and animals

LIVERMORE — Matt O'Grady is taking part in his sixth Go Greenbelt bike tour of the Bay Area, and on each run he spots new subdivisions on land he thinks should be protected.

He hopes that on future tours, he won't encounter new homes, streets and stores in North Livermore.

He and about 30 other concerned bicycle riders held a protest on Wednesday morning at the site of the planned Livermore Trails housing project. If approved by voters in November, the project would allow 2,450 homes north of Interstate 580.

The riders took time out for the protest on the fourth day of their seven-day trek around the Bay Area. The Greenbelt Alliance-sponsored rides seek to call "attention to lands at risk of sprawl development," according to trip literature.

"After all these years on the tour, I am able to see the differences between areas where sprawl was allowed to happen and where it was prevented," O'Grady said. "North Livermore deserves protection. The people have fought for this for many years."

Joining the riders were members of the environmental groups Greenbelt Alliance, Sierra Club and California Native Plant Society, all of which oppose the project. Members of local grassroots groups Friends of Livermore and Save Our Hills also were on hand.

The protest was held near Hartford and Lorraine streets in an area where an endangered plant, the palmate bird's-beak, is prevalent. Numerous speakers highlighted the danger that the project would pose to this plant as well as to the Alkali Sink, a unique wetland of about 1,100 acres.

Carlene Matchniff, Pardee Homes' vice president of community development, described the protesters' choice of location as ironic. It is in the middle of a region Pardee would designate as permanent open space. She added that a consultant hired by Pardee has reported that the bird's-beak would benefit from the creation of the planned environmental preserve.

"It's more of the same," Matchniff said of the protesters' claims. "They are continuing to give out false and misleading information. That has been their tactic since day one."

Those at Wednesday's protest sharply disagreed with the assertion the project would bring environmental benefits.

Jessica Olson of the California Native Plant Society said, "The proposed development would have direct impacts on upland habitat surrounding the Sink and indirectly degrade the overall function of the Sink through hydrological alterations." New homeowners also would expose the area to non-native plants, chemicals and fertilizers, she said.

Others said the project would harm longtime efforts to preserve the land as open space. County voters passed a measure five years ago that prevented the construction of 12,500 homes in North Livermore.

"This development will drive a stake through what we want to promote as a community," said Matt Morrison, a Sierra Club member.

After Wednesday's hour-long protest and speeches, Go Greenbelt participants boarded a bus to go north to their next stop rather than ride their bikes over the dangerous Vasco Road. Last year, two riders were hit by cars on that busy roadway, participants said.

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