It’s been exactly a year since the City Council “unapproved” the proposed sports field complex in Blair Park which seems like a good time to publish an update on FOMC activities. Yes, we are still active in Moraga Canyon!

BLAIR PARK IMPROVEMENT PLAN

As you know, a portion of the settlement with the City of Piedmont was for PRFO to transfer $15,000 from their contingency fund with the City of Piedmont to a separate fund for Blair Park . A special committee within FOMC has been working with city staff to define a landscape improvement plan for Blair Park. The intent of the plan is as follows:

“The proposed project is to develop a low impact Landscape Improvement Plan that meets the general intent of preserving and enhancing the natural state of the existing open-space gateway to the City of Piedmont. It is the intent of the City to enhance the park as an attractive, ecologically diverse, natural setting for park users and wildlife habitat with a minimum of new physical improvements. At this time, there are no plans to increase the available off-street parking or create new pedestrian access, but to nevertheless make what is existing and to remain, more aesthetically pleasing. If deemed appropriate, new plantings and ground covers shall be limited to native, drought tolerant species that promote this natural setting.”

Specifically, the proposal requests a thorough assessment and recommendations for existing trees in the park; identification of replacement trees for any removal; and recommendations for removal of invasive plants, weed abatement, and erosion control. The proposal also calls for enhancing the appearance of the street scape, improvement of a trail within the park, and any additional recommendations that the consultant would suggest that would preserve and enhance the natural state of the park.

The invitation to bid was sent recently to a number of landscape architects suggested by FOMC and city staff with proposals due in about one week. Per the settlement agreement with Piedmont, FOMC will continue to confer with city staff throughout the selection and implementation process. Final contract approval will be made by Piedmont City Council after review by the Parks Commission.

Many thanks to the members of the FOMC Blair Park Restoration & Preservation Committee: Joannie Semitekol, Marj Blackwell, Peggy Esposito, Sinan Sabuncuoglu and Chris Read. They will continue to update us on progress and notify FOMC of any upcoming public hearings.

WORK DAY ON MORAGA MEDIAN – May 11th 10am – Noon

Many of you may be aware that about two years ago, the Friends of Moraga Canyon joined several Oakland neighborhood groups in adopting a portion of the large median on Moraga Avenue adjacent to the Oakland/Piedmont border. While the City of Piedmont has rebuffed our offers to volunteer in Blair Park, the City of Oakland has supplied daffodil and freesia bulbs, orange work vests and mulch for the initial work. Local merchants have donated lumber and paint to repair the white fence running along the length of the median. Neighbors have donated money, time, paint, bulbs, ground covers, and labor to improve the appearance of the median.

Peggy Esposito, who has coordinated all the volunteer efforts as well as acted as liaison to Oakland staff, has just received confirmation that the city will plant 3 new Chinese Pistache trees in the central median. She has been working tirelessly to obtain this approval – many thanks to Peggy!

Everyone is invited to the next work day on Saturday, May 11th from 10:00 a.m. til 12:00 noon. Please come and lend a hand. Activities will be mostly weeding, so bring gloves and any hand tools you think might be helpful. If you have exterior white paint, please bring that as well as a paint brush/roller to spruce up the fence. Because of the high traffic volume on Moraga Avenue, it is not appropriate to bring small children.

PRFO REIMBURSEMENTS TO CITY

PRFO owes the City $220,000 in legal costs, which they formally agreed in writing to pay to “indemnify the City” against lawsuits. They are now disputing the costs billed by the City Attorney and consultants to review project documents. “Discussions” between the City Administrator and PRFO reps have been ongoing for months. The questions here is: What is there to discuss when the agreement was specifically put in place to cover just this type of liability to the City?

On another note, inquiries to the City Administrator regarding when the story poles in Blair Park will be removed have remained unanswered. Apparently, ‘the gift’ had multiple strings attached……

Regards to all,

Jim Semitekol
President, FOMC

In a win for preservation of Piedmont’s Blair Park in Moraga Canyon, the City of Piedmont and the non-profit Friends of Moraga Canyon (FOMC) have reached agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by FOMC against the City Council for approving a sports field project in the park. The Council rescinded its approval of the project in May 2012, and the City and FOMC subsequently agreed to negotiate a settlement of the lawsuit outside of court.

The agreement calls for the City to pay a total of $30,000: $15,000 to cover a portion of FOMC’s attorney fees, and $15,000 to retain a landscape consultant to develop a landscape improvement plan for Blair Park and to implement the plan.

The intent of the plan is to preserve the park’s healthy native trees, remove dead or dying trees, and gradually replace removed trees with more appropriate species.  The plan will include improving the existing pedestrian trail, eradicating invasive plants, and identifying drought-tolerant plants and ground covers to “create an attractive setting for park users and enhance habitat for birds and other wildlife.”

The landscape consultant selected by the City must have experience in “creating and/or implementing plans for natural ‘open space’ parks similar to Blair Park.” FOMC will have an opportunity to comment on the scope of the consultant’s work plan and on the plan itself, before it is approved or implemented.  Once the landscape plan is approved, the City will use remaining funds from the settlement agreement — and any additional money the City decides to allocate — to implement the plan.

“We are very pleased with this agreement,” said FOMC President Jim Semitekol. “Our goal from the outset has been to save Blair Park as a small slice of natural open space for all Piedmont residents and visitors to enjoy, to preserve the habitat for wildlife, and provide an attractive gateway to the City of Piedmont.

“We are grateful to have the lawsuit behind us,” he added, “and we look forward to working with the City to develop and implement a successful plan that truly preserves and enhances Blair Park.”

The $30,000 settlement agreement will be paid out of funds previously deposited with the City by the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO), the organization that proposed developing the Blair Park sports field project.  As part of an agreement for project approval, the City required PRFO to reimburse the City for costs in developing the project and to indemnify the City for potential legal actions against the project approval.

City Administrator and PRFO Recommend Blair Park Element of Moraga Canyon Sports Fields Project Be Withdrawn

The Piedmont City Administrator and the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO) today announced that they will recommend that the City Council rescind its approval of plans to construct a sports field and park facility in Moraga Canyon, otherwise known as Blair Park. The City Council’s May 7th agenda will include an item rescinding the approval of the project.

The cost to complete the environmental work leading to project approval, including the cost of City oversight, was many times greater than the City and PRFO had anticipated, and the parties have not yet reached agreement on how to apportion the significant costs, although discussions are ongoing. In addition, while PRFO has agreed to indemnify the City against third party legal action, the City and PRFO cannot agree on who should absorb other future costs that the City has determined should be reimbursed by PRFO. Those costs include direct and indirect project approval costs, including such items as site lease development, a second set of story poles required by the City’s Story Pole Policy, and internal and external labor for supplementary City oversight during the project implementation.

Because of the significant administrative costs that have already been paid by PRFO to the City and its lawyers, and indications that there could be further unanticipated and significant future costs, as well as an inability to resolve the need for such services and who will manage and pay for these services, and after extended negotiations with the leadership of PRFO, the City Council will consider rescinding its approval of the project at its May 7th meeting.

Dear Neighbors,

I was pleased to learn about Piedmont City Council’s decision to rescind its approval of the Moraga Canyon Sports Complex.

As you know, my office prepared a lawsuit to block the project because of its potential impact on traffic and on storm water flow through beautiful Moraga Canyon.

Fortunately, Piedmont reconsidered based largely on your persistence and effort, and on the lawsuit Friends of Moraga Canyon filed. In meetings with Piedmont and the developer, City of Oakland representatives (Councilmember Libby Schaaf, the City Attorney’s Office and City staff) also made it very clear why we were likely to win in court – not because we are against sports fields, but because this project did not adequately consider the environmental impacts on our city.

For this reason, I believe the Piedmont Council made the right call, and we look forward to working with them cooperatively in the future.

It was a pleasure working with your organization on this project. Please don’t hesitate to call me with any future concerns or issues.

Regards,
Barbara Parker
Oakland City Attorney

The highly controversial Blair Park sports field project in Piedmont came to a quiet end on May 7, 2012 when the Piedmont City Council voted unanimously to formally rescind their prior approval of the project, on the advice of the city administrator and city attorney.

“We’re very pleased that the City Council decided to rescind their approval of this misguided project,” said Jim Semitekol, President of Friends of Moraga Canyon, a grassroots organization of Piedmont and Oakland residents who have opposed the proposed development for the past four years and filed a lawsuit against the city over the project’s inadequate and flawed environmental impact report. “We are grateful that this oversized, costly, environmentally destructive, poorly planned and unsafe project will not be built,” Semitekol added, “and we know that our nearly 1,000 supporters feel the same way.

“We think the City should make sure that every penny of the more than $200,000 owed by PRFO to Piedmont taxpayers is paid in a timely manner,” he said. “That is the least they can do, considering that the City spent nearly $1 million of taxpayer dollars on this project with nothing to show for it.

“We hope the City staff and Council will learn from this unfortunate experience,” Semitekol added, “and, in particular, will examine how to better manage financial risks to the city and have a more transparent, inclusive public process in designing future public projects. Only then will they be able to regain voter confidence and trust.”

Friends of Moraga Canyon (www.moragacanyon.org) is a registered 501©3 nonprofit organization.

Friends of Moraga Canyon (FOMC), the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization, Blair Park LLC, and the City of Piedmont, have agreed to a 60-day delay in proceeding with FOMC’s challenge of the adequacy of environmental impact report for the Moraga Canyon Sports Field project in Piedmont’s Blair Park.  The 60 day stay was entered by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo on March 6, 2012.

During the 60-day period, which extends until May 7, 2012, the project’s main proponent, Piedmont Recreation Facilities Organization (PRFO), cannot seek any new permits or approvals required for the project, and the City cannot carry out any administrative work on the project.

According to Jim Semitekol, President of the non-profit FOMC, “We have agreed to this delay in the hope that PRFO and the City will take the time to review the project and realize that our case against it is sound, that this project is inappropriate for this site, and that their funds would be better spent on finding alternative sites for a sports field rather than pursuing a costly lawsuit.”

The FOMC lawsuit contends that the Blair Park project’s environmental impact report, approved by the Piedmont City Council in December 2011, is inadequate and flawed. The lawsuit argues, “This sports complex went through multiple revisions and amendments as the proponents struggled to satisfy the conflicting demands and needs of the project’s proponents, the state’s environmental laws, the City’s fiscal limitations, and the public at large. These changes continued… right up until the late hours of the hearing at which it was finally approved.”  The suit asserts that the project was significantly changed in 13 major ways after the EIR was certified, and that PRFO and the City should have prepared a supplemental EIR instead of the simple addendum that the Piedmont City Council approved.  Further, the suit contends that the City should not have approved the Project because it violates 16 of Piedmont’s General Plan policies.

A separate lawsuit also may be filed by the City of  Oakland against Piedmont over the project.  To date, the two cities have agreed to extend the lawsuit filing deadline until March 26, 2012, while they attempt to work out a mutually satisfactory solution to Oakland’s objections, primarily to traffic and environmental problems the project is likely to cause.  The Alameda County chapter of the Sierra Club recently sent a letter to the Oakland City Council urging the City to pursue the lawsuit against Piedmont.

http://www.piedmontcivic.org/2012/01/31/planning-commission-hearing-on-blair-park-postponed/

Meanwhile, what action does Friends of Moraga Canyon plan to take? We strongly believe the Addendum to the Blair Park EIR was incomplete and did not analyze the many changes made to the project in the “final” plan approved by the Piedmont City Council on Dec. 5, 2011. Similarly to Oakland, we want the City of Piedmont to conduct a supplemental environmental review, particularly to analyze the new traffic plan (building a roundabout and two pedestrian crosswalks on Moraga Ave.) and new hydrology plan (a “bioswale,” which would affect drainage all the way to Lake Merritt), among other significant changes, including PRFO’s last-minute deletion of the bicycle lane on Moraga Ave. at 4 p.m. on Dec. 5th!

Just like Oakland, FOMC has 30 days (until January 6, 2012) to file a lawsuit to require the City of Piedmont to conduct a Supplemental EIR. We are seriously considering this option in consultation with our attorney and will make a decision before Jan. 6. While Oakland’s objections to the project are similar to FOMC’s, there are differences in our interests, and our decision will not rest on what Oakland decides to do.

Our ongoing legal costs are heavy, and the only way we can continue this fight is with your help. Please make a tax-deductible donation now.

You can donate online by clicking here or by sending a check made out to “Friends of Moraga Canyon” to:

Friends of Moraga Canyon
P.O. Box 70127
Oakland, CA 94612-0127

This outcome—the culmination of a deeply flawed process in which the City Council and its staff repeatedly handed over the reins to the project’s advocates and abdicated their basic responsibility to perform due diligence—was, sadly, not unexpected. FOMC has been preparing for the possibility of legal action for some time, and our Board of Directors is weighing the options. We will let you know as soon as a decision is made, and when we might once again need to ask for your help.

We know this has been a tiring and frustrating process for all of you, as you have donated money, written many letters and emails, and spoke against the project at City Council meetings. But without the support you’ve all shown us, we would not be in as strong a position as we are now to continue the fight.

We’ve said it many times, but once again—a heartfelt THANK YOU from all of us at FOMC. Please stay tuned for our next report.