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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

November 9, 2005

Pardee Homes loses in Livermore

"I think it's a victory for slow growth," said an elated Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena, who was a big winner in his re-election campaign.

"The voters of Livermore aren't as stupid as Pardee thought they were," said key opponent Bob Baltzer. "They are not for sale."

With the votes counted from 48 of the city's 56 precincts by early Wednesday, Pardee's Measure D was doomed with less than 30 percent of the vote.

Pardee spent more than $3.25 million campaigning for the controversial measure, which is part of a new wave of developer-led ballot initiatives in California and which became the central issue in Tuesday's mayoral and City Council races in Livermore.

Pardee representative Carlene Matchniff expressed disappointment after early returns.

"If people want a sports park and high school in the future, they will really have to fight this town's entrenched no-growth faction," she said.

As for what Pardee will do now, "We want to assess the vote and determine our next steps. We have tried to give Livermore our all."

In exchange for the housing, Measure D would have required Pardee to dedicate a 130-acre sports park, 750 acres of open-space preserve, high school and elementary school sites and $10.4 million in endowments for public agencies and community organizations.

Measure D supporters, including the Chamber of Commerce and Tri-Valley Business Council, argued the project would provide needed housing for working families now pushed into a search for housing in the more agriculturally fertile Central Valley, worsening Interstate 580 traffic.

But critics, bolstered by the Sierra Club, Greenbelt Alliance and other environmental groups, said the outlying development will happen regardless. They warned the Pardee project would snarl local traffic, harm critical habitat, carry hidden costs for taxpayers and open the floodgates to development throughout North Livermore.

A citywide vote is required under the city's urban-growth boundary initiative adopted by the slow-growth City Council in 2002 after signatures from 9,500 registered voters qualified the initiative for the ballot.

Backers argued that even if approved, the Pardee project would have had to go through the regular city approval process with public hearings and environmental reviews.

Opponents said any promises not spelled out in the initiative are not guaranteed. They said Pardee would have been required under basic city development standards to pay $18 million in traffic fees but not necessarily the full $35 million identified in potential traffic impacts.

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