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Your Five Minute News Flash
Greenbelt Alliance * Volume 4, Issue 2:
February 2005
Photo of the Month
 In
this edition
Action Alert: Tomorrow--Help Protect East
Bay Open Space!
Alert: Threat to Protected Land in Sonoma
County
Action Alert: Land At Risk in North Livermore
Event: Regional Open Space Conference--May
13th, 2005
Event: Get Fit While Protecting Open Space--Ride
or Run
Announcement: Hot off the Press--Greenbelt
Alliance in the News
Upcoming Outings & Events
Tomorrow: Help Protect
East Bay Open Space!
Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors and city leaders will meet
this Saturday to negotiate the County's Urban Limit Line. The line defines
where growth can and cannot occur in Contra Costa County. East County
cities like Antioch and Brentwood are trying to expand the line to pave
more open space, even though they still have plenty of vacant land inside
the line. Expanding the line will mean more sprawl, more traffic, and
fewer protected farms and hillsides.
Join us tomorrow morning to hold the line!
Saturday, February 26
9:00 am - 1:00 pm (public comment at 9:30)
Walnut Creek Civic Park Community Center, 1375 Civic Drive
Threat to Protected
Land in Sonoma County
In Sonoma, protected wetlands north of Santa Rosa are being threatened
by plans to build a minor league baseball stadium. The land proposed for
development is already protected by a conservation easement, which says
it should be kept as wetlands or as agricultural land. The area is also
a "community separator"--land the county has designated to stay
rural, to keep towns distinct. A baseball stadium, with all its infrastructure
and parking, is a clear violation of the intent of both the conservation
easement and the community separator designation.
Help us make it clear to decision-makers that a ballpark is not an appropriate
use for protected wetlands!
Write to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Try to keep your letter to the editor under 200 words. Click here
for a form or here to send
email.
Land At Risk in North
Livermore
Pardee Homes, a developer, has submitted an initiative to move Livermore's
Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) to allow it to build 2450 houses north of
the city, on 600 acres of open space that is currently protected. The
UGB exists to provide long-term protection for working farms and natural
areas from development. Greenbelt Alliance believes it should not be breached
at a developer's whim.
The development is opposed by a coalition of groups including the Friends
of Livermore, Greenbelt Alliance, and the Sierra Club. For more information
on the campaign, see friendsoflivermore.org.
This Monday, February 28, the Livermore City Council will decide whether
to adopt the initiative allowing development outside the UGB, or to refer
the matter to the voters of Livermore.
Come tell the City Council to keep development off protected land!
Monday, February 28
7:00 pm
Livermore City Council Chambers, 3575 Pacific Avenue
Regional Open Space
Conference: May 13th, 2005
The Bay Area Open Space Council's Seventh Annual Regional Open Space Conference
is coming up!
The conference will include: speakers, presentations, and networking
on the protection and enjoyment of parks, natural habitats and agricultural
open spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area. It will be a blend of practical
information, conservation challenges and strategy, politics, and a dash
of philosophy.
Also included: two exhibition halls of displays about the agencies, organizations,
professionals and businesses who protect and manage the region's incredible
parks and open spaces.
Friday, May 13th, 2005
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Golden Gate Club, Presidio of San Francisco
Space is limited--reserve your place early!
Registration is $40 in advance; $50 at the door.
Registration materials are available at http://openspacecouncil.org/.
Get Fit While Protecting
Open Space: Ride or Run
Go Greenbelt!, the Bay Area bike tour, will be May 8th-14th this
year. Spend a week riding through wildflowers while raising funds to protect
the greenbelt! Join us for three days or all seven, but join soon, because
the ride is filling up! Find out more at http://www.greenbelt.org/getinvolved/events/go_overview.html.
Not into cycling? How about running or walking? You can participate in
the San Francisco Marathon on Sunday, July 31st, and support Greenbelt
Alliance. You don't even have to do all 26 miles: shorter events are available
too. Sign up today at www.causetorun.com,
and choose Team 6. Even a portion of your registration fee will be donated
to Greenbelt Alliance.
Not into the exercise, but into the cause? You can help without even
leaving the house! Sponsor a rider or runner--click here
or email mwright@greenbelt.org
to find out more.
Hot off the Press: Greenbelt
Alliance in the News
Check out the latest news from Greenbelt Alliance! Listen to KQED's recent
story on our affordable
housing work (2 MB mp3 file), read the Chronicle's profiles of our
Winter
Waterfall Outings in the North Bay and in
the East Bay, hear what we said to KPFA about Coyote
Valley's development (1 MB m3u file) --and more!
Visit http://www.greenbelt.org/resources/press/clippings/index.html
Upcoming
Outings & Events
Sun Feb 27: San Francisco to Sausalito
Sun Feb 27: Chasing Cataract Falls
Sat Mar 12: Marvelous Murietta Falls
Sun Mar 13: Ultra Uvas Canyon Falls
Become
a Member or Renew Your Membership
Support our work to protect the Bay Area's open space and make our cities
better places to live. Click
here to join or renew, or click
here to join our Greenbelt Guardian monthly donor club. Questions?
Contact Melissa Wright at 415-543-6771 or mwright@greenbelt.org.
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