From: Deborah Leland
To: City Council
Cc: Kevin Jackson; Rosanna Bayon Moore; Pierce Macdonald Subject: Re: Moraga Canyon Specific Plan
Date: Monday, March 18, 2024 1:03:04 PM
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Dear Mayor Cavenaugh, City Council members, staff and consultants, After reading the staff report, and seeing the direction the City seems to be heading, I need to provide further comment to amend the letter I submitted on March 12:
The ideas I had offered about Option 2 were intended to provide the City with flexibility to compromise on the secondary (i.e. non-housing) goals of the Specific Plan to enable that Option. Instead, the direction proposed in the staff report doubles down on the market rate housing in order to continue to insist on the most extensive recreational uses. I think this would lead to too intensive use, problematic siting and overdevelopment in Moraga Canyon. I do not support Option 2 at this intensity of use.
I believe that the concept of flexibility that the staff report is endorsing takes the City in the wrong direction. Failure to select a site plan option is a bad idea: that approach will lead to confusion and a drawn out Specific Planning process, along with additional staff/consultant time and cost. The approach outlined in the staff report is also in clear contradiction with the direction in the Housing Element to create a Specific Plan that "prioritizes and expedites the identification of a site for the development of affordable housing that meets the criteria and timelines to secure Alameda County Measure A-1 funding." (emphasis added)
The City should select Option 1. Given the City's unwillingness to compromise on having a U14 soccer field, Option 1 is the only feasible way to proceed. This Option allows de-coupling the recreation improvements from the improvements necessary for housing and safety, so that the City can continue to follow the dream of having its U-14 field without derailing the entire Specific Planning effort.
Thank you,
Deborah Leland