The Facts:

I look forward to seeing each and every one of you in the audience.

If you have any questions please give me a call.

Greg Jones
Member, SRVHS, AIA Planning Committee
(925) 837-8366

(Dated 5/5/05)   

Dear members of the Equestrian community:

Save Mount Diablo received an e-mail from Greg Jones regarding the Humphrey property and Davidon's proposed development, and found it quite misleading--and we don't normally defend developers. In fact the Humphrey project has a higher level of public benefit than almost any project we've ever seen--especially for equestrians. The benefits are detailed below:

As you may know, Save Mount Diablo's (SMD) mission is the protection of Mt. Diablo. We are very involved in the land use development process that goes on around the mountain. SMD follows nearly every parcel around the mountain and its twenty-nine parks and preserves, and we generally have a strategy for each piece, including whether all or part of a parcel should be preserved.

A little background (Humphrey project info below):

One third of SMD's Board of Directors are equestrians. SMD has advocated for equestrian access on all sides of the mountain and at a variety of Diablo's parks, and neighborhood trail entrances on all sides of Diablo, for the past 34 years. We have created more equestrian access in the East Bay than any entity but the East Bay Regional Park District, including land acquisition and regional staging areas to serve equestrians at Mt. Diablo State Park's Mitchell Canyon, Macedo Ranch, Castle Rock Road, Morgan Territory Reg. Preserve, Round Valley Reg. Preserve, etc. We've completed the first steps toward a new regional equestrian staging area on Finley Road (accessing 3300 acre Riggs Canyon). We're very close to completion of preservation of the Mt. Diablo Gateway Project at Mt. Diablo State Park's north gate, including an equestrian staging area.

We've pushed for more equestrian access at Los Vaqueros (so far unsuccessfully), and are advocating for equestrians at the new Cowell Ranch State Park (we've already mapped out some trails).

We created the 30-mile Diablo Trail from Walnut Creek to Brentwood and are close to connecting the Diablo Trail back to the north in a loop through Black Diamond Mines-with trails from Round Valley to Black Diamond and back to Mt. Diablo State Park. Just last week we preserved a 200 acre parcel on Briones Valley Road to that end, narrowing a 1.4 mile gap to just a half mile. The only other gap is 1/8 mile. If we preserve those two gaps we'll have a 60 mile doughnut of open space around Morgan Territory and a 60 mile trail corridor which we've already mapped and which will require very little construction.

SMD acquired the Wright Canyon and Morgan Red Corral properties on Morgan Territory Road specifically to provide staging areas and equestrian access on Diablo's east side. We're working on equestrian improvements at Mitchell Canyon right now, and are acquiring the 207-acre Mangini Ranch, which will allow an extension of George Cardinet's and the Heritage Trails Fund's California State Riding and Hiking Trail.

Davidon's Humphrey Project

We have monitored the Humphrey property application from day one, as we did the Stone Valley Oaks project adjacent on the west. Our concerns about preservation of open space, recreational opportunity and access as well as consistency with good planning are all objectives that are being met by this proposal. We worked closely with County Supervisors Gerber, Greenberg and now Piepho in considering the proposal.

Alamo has enviable equestrian access at Macedo Ranch at the end of Green Valley Road, also accessed up Livorna from Summit Ranch, or from Diablo Foothills. The Las Trampas to Mt. Diablo Trail goes up a canyon next to Humphrey. The Humphrey property is more steep than the Las Trampas Trail, but also preserves 60% of the property, including the remainder of a trail loop from the Las Trampas Trail.

In addition, the Humphrey project will provide equestrian trail safety improvements and a better (equestrian height, button-operated with flashing lights to warn traffic) crossing for the Las Trampas Trail on the neighboring property (past the EBMUD water tank), which accesses Regional Park land and is maintained by them. It's significantly less steep than the Humphrey property, and the State Park's Macedo Ranch is close by and a much better staging location.

On Stone Valley Road, SMD pushed for improvements in the Las Trampas to Mt. Diablo Trail. At the Stone Valley Oaks project next to Humphrey we were forced to work hard to remove development from inappropriate locations and to realign the Las Trampas to Mt. Diablo Regional Trail to a somewhat better grade.

At Humphrey, by contrast, Davidon and the family proposed a development footprint that matched our open space and recreational goals from the very first-preservation of the beautiful woodland and upper two-thirds of the parcel. There was no effort to play "the zoning game", but rather a good land plan that clusters the development on the more level land, proposing fewer homes than the General Plan would allow, and setting aside the majority of the property, 62 acres, for permanent open space with provision for a public access trail connection to the mountain across the upper portion of the property.

Open Space Preservation

Jones failed to mention some other significant benefits of the Davidon project. Given that Davidon was already meeting our goals with its land use plan, we were pleased to work with them on a Williamson Act Exchange to set aside other lands in permanent open space-including funding for the Gateway project and a parcel in the Mt. Diablo to Black Diamond corridor that I mentioned above-both of which will have equestrian access.

Briefly, the early cancellation of part of the Humphrey Williamson Act Preserve (a 10 year contract that automatically renews annually unless canceled, designed to keep taxes low on agricultural parcels) presents us with an opportunity. Humphrey's WA Preserve was cancelled 6 years ago and its ag value is practically nil, since neighboring parcels have been developed. Four years from now the WA Preserve would vanish with no penalty, cancellation fee, or benefit. Or Davidon could simply send the cancellation fee now to Sacramento and it would disappear into the State General Fund.

Using the exchange, a new provision of Williamson Act Preserve legislation, the cancellation fee can be kept locally to preserve better and/or larger agricultural lands (in this case grazing land with trail access). The result in this case is the preservation of over 300 acres in perpetuity, in exchange for the development of 39 homes on 24 of the 96 acres at Humphrey, in exchange for canceling the Williamson Act Preserve on that 24 acres four years early.

Save Mount Diablo has taken a rare stance in support of this project as a result of our review of the proposal and of working with Davidon and the Humphrey family to meet the goals of our organization to benefit preservation and recreation on Mt. Diablo. We think it is a model for others to follow as we work to preserve this precious resource in our own backyard. We have rarely seen such a high level of public benefit.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Seth Adams, Director of Land Programs
Save Mount Diablo
1196 Boulevard Way #10
Walnut Creek, CA 94595

Tel: 925 947-3535, fax: 925 947-3603