On Tuesday, the East Bay Regional Park District reached a deal to buy roughly 1,900 acres of open space at the foot of Mt. Diablo in Antioch for $14.24 million. This land had been at risk of becoming a sprawling luxury home community before being sold by the Roddy Group LLC, which includes ex-rodeo star and longtime cattle rancher Jack Roddy.
Now, it will one day be a new regional park instead.
For nearly two decades, numerous staff members and volunteers from Greenbelt Alliance, Save Mount Diablo, the Sierra Club, and other partner organizations have been defending these lands. Just a few months ago, we testified in Antioch about the proposed Roddy Ranch project, identifying severe flaws in the latest draft environmental impact report. Tuesday’s deal is a huge win for preserving our vital natural land.
This purchase, among the largest ever for the park district, will allow for expansion of existing networks, protect endangered or threatened species, and eventually become Deer Valley Regional Park.
“It will allow us to create a whole new park,” said district board director Ted Radke. “Plus, it ties in with the other land acquisitions we’ve made in East Contra Costa to create a huge wildlife corridor.”
Read the full story in the Contra Costa Times.
