Citing the potentially large impact on the prominent hills south of the city, Save Mount Diablo has filed a lawsuit challenging Pittsburg’s approval of Discovery Builders’ planned 1,500-home Faria project.
Save Mount Diablo said the project by Faria Land Investors, a Seeno/Discovery Builders’ company, would forever change “the beautiful hills,” a blanket of green in the spring. The housing development would be located in the ridgeline between Pittsburg and Concord and is home to rare habitat, whose special species status would be lost, according to a spokesman for the nonprofit.
“Save Mount Diablo is simply trying to protect one of the East Bay’s most prominent and well-known ridgelines,” Ted Clement, Save Mount Diablo executive director, said. “…If we do nothing, massive grading will take place; the project will be built; the ridge damaged; other natural resources, including scenic vistas, will be harmed; and the new regional park, which we advocated for over many years will be negatively impacted.”
Plans to develop the hills date back to 2005 when voter-approved Measure P moved the Faria site within Pittsburg’s urban boundary. The city approved an agreement with the developer that established guidelines for a permanent greenbelt buffer along the inner edges of the boundary.
The Concord-based developer filed an application in 2010, modified it in 2014 and again in 2017 before resurrecting plans in 2020.
Then, on Feb. 22 of this year, the City Council approved the Seeno-owned Discovery Builders’ 1,500-unit residential housing project. As approved, the development of a major, new residential subdivision will be clustered in valleys of the ridgeline and hillside grazing land in what is currently unincorporated Contra Costa County, immediately south of the city of Pittsburg.
The extensive grading in the area would not only increase landslide risks and degrade creeks and streams, but create new wildfire risks and strain the city of Pittsburg’s existing firefighting services, according to Save Mount Diablo.
“Throughout the East Bay, residents have worked hard to protect our ridges and views,
and to defend our parks. Pittsburg residents deserve the same protections and quality of life,” Clement said.
Juan Pablo Galván, Save Mount Diablo senior land use manager, noted that the “whole area is a wind tunnel” in an earlier phone interview.
“It is an extremely windy area and you can’t have much even in the way of trees. .. and fire plus wind equals a bad situation,” he said.
Save Mount Diablo maintains that the Faria project violates Pittsburg’s General Plan, California planning and zoning law, and the California Environmental Quality Act, which it says lacks adequate analysis of numerous impacts, including biological resources, water supply, wildfire, traffic and land use.
The city did not respond to requests for comment, but attorneys for Albert Seeno III’s Discovery Builders said that the city of Pittsburg and its environmental consultant have performed “a comprehensive and extensive analysis of potential impacts of this project.”
“Their work was thorough and well-done,” attorney James Colopy, of Farella Braun+Martel LLP, said. “Following that analysis, planning and engineering staff at the city recommended approval of this project; the Pittsburg Planning Commission recommended approval of this project; and the City Council voted unanimously to approve this project.”
Colopy also argued that the project was consistent with the city’s General Plan, which “has long provided for this land to be developed for housing.”
“Given the city and their consultant diligently analyzed potential impacts of this project, my client is not concerned with this poorly drafted and baseless lawsuit filed solely for the purpose of delay,” he said.
Earlier, the East Bay Regional Parks District also objected to the project, part of which would lie just above their planned new 2,540-acre regional park at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station.
In turn, Seeno and Discovery Builders last summer filed a lawsuit against the East Bay Regional Park District, which could impact its plans to develop the park. In that lawsuit, Seeno said the park would cause undisclosed impacts on the environment and would impact their planned Faria residential development.
A Save Mount Diablo spokesman added that it is not opposed to all growth. Pittsburg has thousands of housing units already approved but not yet built, including units at Seeno’s San Marco, Sky Ranch II, Montreux, and Tuscany Meadows projects. But the nonprofit said a smaller, more compact Faria plan would better protect the ridgeline and could allow the new regional park to expand to the Pittsburg side, giving residents better access.
According to Pittsburg’s current project pipeline list, there are 5,853 housing units approved or under construction, 88 % of them — 5,141 housing units — by Seeno’s Discovery Builders.
Before the Faria project could be built, however, the Local Agency Formation Commission must first approve the annexation of the land in unincorporated Pittsburg.
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Environmental group files lawsuit against Pittsburg to try to preserve hills - East Bay Times
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