Developer’s Unfulfilled Promise Keeps Dublin Hills Park Closed to Public
The Dublin Hills regional park is a majestic 600-acre open space preserve in the West Dublin hills that was created using land dedicated by developers in exchange for approvals to build homes on agricultural land and natural habitats.
In addition to providing residents with a magnificently beautiful open space area to enjoy for fitness and family activities, the Dublin Hills regional park will eventually provide an integral link to the Martin Canyon Creek, Donlan Point, and Calaveras Ridge Trails. While Dublin Hills was to be opened for public enjoyment by the end of 2008, it still remains under lock-and-key frequented only by East Bay Regional Parks District staff.
Why hasn’t the Dublin Hills regional park been opened to the public?
The key is that the integral Dublin Hills staging area has not been built as promised by Schaefer Ranch developer Discovery Homes.
Discovery Homes had agreed to build a staging area by the end of 2008 replete with:
- 23 parking spaces
- Equestrian parking
- Restrooms
- Trail connections
While they’ve profited from relatively strong home sales at Schaefer Ranch, Discovery Homes has refused to follow through on their promise to build the staging area – leaving East Bay residents wondering when the Dublin Hills regional park will be opened to the public.
7:20 AM on July 30th, 2009
Wow, this is disappointing that it hasn’t opened! We love to hike and it would be great to have some nice trails in Dublin.
10:17 AM on July 30th, 2009
Hi John Z,
Thanks so much for following up from my previous posting.
I encourage all of your readers to view the interim Dublin Hill Regional Park Plan. It will give you an idea of the complex eco-system in our West Dublin Hills.
http://www.ebparks.org/files/plan_dublinhills_InterimLUP.pdf
IMO I find it interesting how the ex-Mayor of Dublin received campaign donations from Discovery Builders. Also it’s unclear to me; however it seems that some land was donated to Janet’s “happy talkers” school project that has yet to be built.
Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20061104/ai_n16829500
You should note that the Schaefer Ranch is “Geological Hazard Abatement District” and was a massive grading project that incorporated cuts, fills and blasts to existing hills.
* Moved a total 9.4 million cubic yards of dirt
* 1.1 million cubic yards was hard rock that required blasting
* According to the geotechnical reports for the project approximately 59 landslides have been identified on the subject site
* Engineered fill within the site are shown to extend up to approximately 150 feet above original grades in some places
Source:
http://209.172.109.140/weblink7/DocView.aspx?id=137829&searchhandle=31447
http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/DepartmentSubLevel2.cfm?PL=gov&SL=brd&dsplyID=1079
http://www.ci.dublin.ca.us/general-plan/GeneralPlan-Chapter-8-SeismicSafetyAndSafetyElement.pdf
Keep up the good work!
4:29 PM on July 30th, 2009
Is this in Discovery Homes’ development contract with the City？If so, the city should be able to require them to fulfill the commitment, right? Is there anything that we can do to push Discovery Homes to do it? Thanks.
8:42 AM on July 31st, 2009
Hi John West, I’m not a geologist or anything nor am I familiar with some of those land fill techniques. But from what you are saying regarding the Schaefer Ranch housing development, does it mean those houses are not safe to live in (especially during an earthquake)?
I was looking at those houses at one point, but maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t sign any docs.
9:27 AM on July 31st, 2009
Hi Anonymous,
Many readers may have first heard about Discovery Homes in a news article from Contra Costa Times back in the summer of 2006. Below is the complete article by reporter Danielle McNamara:
“Landslide in Pittsburg imperils seven homes: Officials investigate potential reasons for half-acre slide; developer of nearby subdivision puts evacuees up in hotels.” Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA). McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 2006. AccessMyLibrary. 31 Jul. 2009.
Jul. 14 — When Nola Boyd went to sleep early Thursday morning she was not sure if she would still have a home when she woke up. Boyd said she heard loud popping noises at about 1 a.m. in the backyard of the San Lucia Drive home in which she lives. When she looked outside, she realized it was the sound of her wooden fence breaking apart and falling down an embankment. The landslide that began then would eventually take out the fence as well as a chunk of her back yard and swaths of grass and soil in a vacant lot next door. “It looks like King Kong was here,” she said later that day. “When I went to bed last night, we still had a fence. I didn’t know what it would look like when I woke up.” Of the seven houses on San Lucia Drive affected by the half-acre slide, families living in six of them opted to evacuate. No one was injured. Williams Lyons Homes Inc. offered to pick up evacuees’ hotel bills, Pittsburg officials said. The home builder is grading the hillside for the Vista Del Mar subdivision, which is next to the San Marco subdivision affected by the landslide. The San Marco development was built by Discovery Homes. The homes on San Lucia Drive sit on a plateau above the Vista Del Mar project area. Representatives from Discovery Homes and William Lyons Homes had no comment Thursday.
Grading near the slide area will stop until experts can determine what caused the landslide, said City Engineer Joe Sbranti. He added that geotechnical engineers provided by both developers and one from the city were on the scene Thursday assessing the slide. Sbranti did not know how long the assessment would take to complete, but said a city representative will be on site monitoring the situation 24 hours a day. Summer landslides can be a delayed result of wet winters, said retired United States Geological Survey geologist and landslide expert Ray Wilson. “The normal assumption is that in the summer, the soil dries out because it doesn’t rain, but only the upper layers dry all the way. The moisture can stay for a long time,” he said.
Wilson said in newer housing developments the water content in the soil can be very high because homeowners are watering sod or grass seed. Movement in the ground from the wet winter could have begun in mid- to late spring, but not reach the surface until months later, he said. “Without knowing the specifics, you can’t rule out the grading or water as the cause. It could be either, or it could be both,” he said. Home builders are required to provide a development report to the city that includes grading details, Sbranti said. The report is reviewed by licensed engineers before the city approves the project.
With the Vista Del Mar project, the city brought in an additional engineer to review the report once more, prior to approval. The San Marco subdivision eventually will have 1,412 single-family homes and 1,526 apartments and condominiums. The Vista Del Mar subdivision will add an additional 540 homes. The homes on San Lucia Drive were built in 2004.
Danielle McNamara covers East Contra Costa County police and fire. Reach her at 925-779-7174 or dmcnamara@cctimes.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
10:35 AM on July 31st, 2009
Hi Anonymous,
I am not a geologist, and like you not qualified to answer your question on “earthquake” safety. I can only give you my opinion and believe some of the home sites are built on hard rock and some are not.
Personally, I would be more concerned over landslides. The bottom line, I have provided a bunch of links to my research. I recommend potential buyers to read each link and decide for themselves.
Read about the “Dublin Embayment Sub-Section” — USGS Link
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/external/reports/05HQGR0023.pdf
Learn more about Hayward fault’s sub systems – USGS Link
http://quake.usgs.gov/prepare/ncep/hayward.html#Figure5
Yet another link on the Schaefer Ranch
http://citydocs.ci.dublin.ca.us/weblink7/PDF/qhdvag45v5fwaf55cqgmxv55/3/Item%206.1%20Schaefer%20Rnch%20So.%20GPA.pdf
BTW, I forgot to provide a reference in my last post to the “9.8 million cubic yards of excavation, of which approximately 1.1 million cubic yards was hard rock that required blasting”. here is the Reference:
http://www.kiewit.com/projects/buildings/schaefer-ranch.aspx
1:12 AM on August 1st, 2009
Here is a follow-up article on the seven Pittsburg homes negatively impacted by the half-acre landslide by reporter Laurie Phillips:
“Residents file claim against Pittsburg: Six families affected by landslide argue that city, developer failed to repair and abate their homes after they were damaged.” Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA). McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 2007. AccessMyLibrary. 1 Aug. 2009.
Jun. 27 — The city entity responsible for maintaining slope stability in Pittsburg’s southwest hills failed to repair and abate the landslides that forced seven families from their homes last summer and damaged their lots and houses, property owners said in a claim filed earlier this month.
Six of the seven affected property owners on Santa Lucia Drive filed that claim — and others against Seecon Financial & Construction Co. and Discovery Homes, the companies that built their houses — in the hope of bringing their case to mediation and avoiding a lawsuit. The seventh family affected by the slides has since moved and is not included in the action.
The half-acre landslide happened in July 2006 while a contractor for William Lyon Homes was grading land in preparation for its 540-home Vista del Mar subdivision. The homes affected by the slide sit on a plateau above the site and are part of Discovery Homes’ San Marco subdivision.
A report prepared by a consultant, hired by the city to evaluate the Lyon subdivision, does not definitively say why the June 6 and July 13 slides happened, but it suggests blame could lie with both developers, given they both knew of and worked to fix a portion of the natural landslide that crossed their property line.
Michael Cochrane, the residents’ attorney, said Tuesday that attorneys with the city and Lyon have agreed to mediate the case but that he had not received that commitment from Seecon and Discovery. Ruthann Ziegler, Pittsburg’s city attorney, was unavailable for comment Tuesday, Lyon attorney Jan Gruen said she could not comment on the case, and a Seecon and Discovery attorney did not return a phone call for comment.
“It’s been a significant burden on them,” Cochrane said of the homeowners, who collectively have incurred more than $130,000 in attorney and consultant fees so far to investigate the landslides, according to the claim against the Pittsburg district.
The claim states that the homeowners believe repairing their homes and lots to their satisfaction — to the condition they were in before the slides — will cost more than $6 million. They also believe the slides lowered their property values and that the homes in their current condition have no market value, according to the claim.
“We just want to be made whole,” Santa Lucia resident Denise Reinhardt said. “The bottom line is: We want the city to take some responsibility here. They’re the ones that invited these developers in and allowed this to happen.”
Reinhardt and her neighbors also have expressed frustration with Lyon, whose representatives, they say, told them immediately after the July slide that the company would fix their yards by this spring. That has not happened, Reinhardt said.
“It’s very depressing when you see these beautiful yards going up down below us” in Vista del Mar, she said. She also said that Santa Lucia yards are languishing.
Angry with the company, she and some of her neighbors earlier this year picketed near several of the company’s sales offices. Contra Costa County Assessor Gus Kramer, who owns the home closest to the slide in July, hung a banner across his and his next-door neighbor’s back fences that is visible from Vista del Mar. In tall black letters, it reads: “LYONS FIX OUR HOMES.”
Laurie Phillips covers Pittsburg and Bay Point. Reach her at 925-779-7164 or lphillips@cctimes.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
10:08 AM on August 3rd, 2009
Thank you guys for the follow-up. I check this site almost on a daily basis, and so I want to say keep up the good work here.