Campaign webpage: www.savedublinopenspace.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/openspacedublin
10 years ago, a coalition of environmental groups including Save Dublin Open Space, Save Mount Diablo, the Sierra Club, Friends of Livermore and the Tri-Valley Conservancy created the Dublin Urban Limit Line to save 3000-acre Doolan Canyon, which gave Dublin voters control of changes. Our initiative protected the greenbelt open space and wildlife corridor between Dublin and Livermore. This is county land between the two cities.
In November 2014 Dublin voters rejected Measure T, a developers' plan to break the new Urban Limit Line for 2000 houses on 2000 acres, -- by 84% to 16%.
Now developers and some Dublin City Council members are back at it, trying to break our Urban Limit Line and fool you into giving away your voter control. They put Measure II on the November ballot to benefit one developer without any environmental review--which is illegal-- and almost no public awareness. It would deceptively take your voter approval away and give it to the City Council. This is an attempted land grab by Dublin and the developer. Livermore wants the greenbelt to remain protected.
If the developer and Dublin get away with it, even more of the greenbelt will be threatened. Breaking the Urban Limit Line is just the first step. As Save Mount Diablo’s Conservation Director, Seth Adams, says: “This is not about one property. If they break the urban limit line here, the entire green belt is at risk.”
Conservation and community groups are fighting back. The developer is talking about massive commercial development--think giant warehouses, truck stops, thousands of semi trucks snarling traffic and polluting the air--like in Tracy. It would destroy the greenbelt between Dublin and Livermore.
The developer and city are lying too--saying massive development will ease traffic, protect open space and limit greenhouse gases, which is bull. It's currently open space. Development will increase traffic, increase pollution and destroy open space. That's why community and environmental groups are opposed.
If they get their way this time, they'll be back to destroy more open space and we'll lose the greenbelt.
We're organizing an opposition campaign very quickly. Email Juan Pablo Galván Martínez at Save Mount Diablo if you'd like to help: jpgalvan@savemountdiablo.org
Measure II (aka ii or “eye-eye”) is a confusing ballot measure designation, easily confused with Roman numeral two or lower-case LL – so we have to keep explaining what it is. And it will be located low or at the end of the ballot when which some voters might miss. Please vote NO on Measure II.
Legal Challenge
Last month Save Mount Diablo and Friends of Livermore filed a legal challenge under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) against Dublin’s bad, open space destroying Measure II (lower case ii), which three members of the Dublin City Council placed on the ballot over the objections of residents, conservation groups, and two other members of the City Council.
We filed this legal challenge because the city did NO environmental review of the huge development this measure would cause, and that’s against the law. The California Environmental Quality Act regulates how environmental review is carried out for projects that might have impacts. The city didn’t make any attempt to understand those impacts or involve the public as legally required.
If approved, Measure II would amend Dublin’s General Plan (its “constitution for development”) to allow the City Council to approve commercial development on the only remaining open space between Dublin and Livermore. This is the same area that Save Mount Diablo, Dublin residents, and allies protected in 2014 by creating an east side Urban Limit Line (a line beyond which residential, commercial, and other ‘urban style’ development cannot occur), and then defended against a developer’s greenwashed measure later that year.
We won in 2014 with a landslide 84% of voters deciding to protect Dublin’s open space.
Now the City Council and developers want to take the voting power to move this line--away from Dublin residents-- and give it to the Dublin City Council. They say that the development would pay for the Dublin Blvd Extension, a road connection between Dublin and Livermore. This was already thought of back in 2014, and the road can be built without Measure II. We don’t have a problem with the road. But based on their actions so far, we can’t trust the Dublin City Council.
We have a big problem with the unnecessary commercial development they want to build in the County land between Dublin and Livermore. Their own reports call this place ideal for big warehouses and truck-stop style shipping. Huge commercial facilities create lots of traffic, noise and air pollution that Dubliners would have to live with. These simple, and obvious, facts contradict what proponents of Measure II say.
Even worse, Dublin has not done any kind of environmental review of the project, so people don’t have an idea of the consequences the measure would have. That’s why we’re suing. Dublin failed to conduct environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) prior to placing Measure II on the ballot.
Dublin city government claims the Ballot Measure Resolution is not a “project” under the California Environmental Quality Act and therefore did not have to undergo environmental review prior to approval. Dublin also claimed that, if it were a project, it would be exempt from environmental review.
Even though Dublin has no legal agreements with the property owner, and says this “is not a project” they’re making all kinds of false claims about what the “project” would do. All of it speculative. None of it is guaranteed. None of it is fact.
Our attorney Rebecca Davis explains:
“The City is trying to have its cake and eat it too. On the one hand, the City acknowledges that the Ballot Measure will open up protected open space to commercial development. On the other hand, the City is claiming that there are no foreseeable environmental impacts that could result from the Ballot Measure. The environmental impacts of turning open space into commercial developments like warehouses has obvious impacts on the environment. Bringing a lawsuit against the City is the only way to ensure that the environmental impacts of the Ballot Measure are disclosed to the public and properly managed before opening the area to commercial development.”
We want proper environmental review to occur, and we want legal disclosure of that information so that the public can make an informed decision, instead of a rush to the ballot to try and trick voters. We should all know what the actual project is, what’s being agreed, and what the actual impacts on Dublin residents and the environment will be.
Save Mount Diablo and Friends of Livermore filed for a temporary restraining order and stay to prevent the City and the Alameda County Registrar of Voters from placing Measure II on the November ballot. On August 21, 2024, Judge Michael Markman denied the application without providing any opinion or justification. That’s not unusual. If voters reject Measure II as they should, the legal issues go away.
That denial doesn’t impact the merits of the case. Even if approved by the voters, the court can and must invalidate the measure after it is approved it if finds the City violated the California Environmental Quality Act. That’s what has happened in other cases like this.
But we’re mounting a “NO on Measure II” campaign to make certain that environmental rules are followed, the right to decide remains with the public, and that Doolan Canyon – the beautiful greenbelt and wildlife corridor between Dublin and Livermore, is protected.
Join us this November and VOTE NO on Measure II.
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