Campaign to Save Our Ridges

Please support the legal challenge of the Sierra Club and East Bay Regional Parks to hillside development at Las Trampas known as the Northwest Specific Plan. Read detailed information about Saving Our Ridges in San Ramon. The challenge is to require the City Council to abide by the General Plan which requires hillside developments be voted on by the citizens of San Ramon before approval.

If you support this legal challenge you can contribute by making your checks payable to:

"Sierra Club Foundation"

Add a note in the memo area to read "San Ramon Litigation".

Mail your contribution to:

San Francisco Bay Chapter

Sierra Club

2530 San Pablo Avenue, Suite 1

Berkeley, Ca. 94702-9918

This donation is a tax deductible contribution with no maximum limit to the Foundation!

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Please contribute as much as you can. We are looking to gather $10,000.00 by the end of this year and the same next year. The Sierra Club is donating $20,000.00 and has asked the citizens of San Ramon to match that amount. We will be campaigning throughout the summer for contributions.

If you can contribute $100.00 we can meet our goal. Groups and Homeowners Associations can contribute more to get to our goal. If you have already pledged money to the lawsuit, please send it in to the address above.

If you would like to help by having a meeting of your neighbors to raise funds, we would be glad to speak to the group about the lawsuit and the City's future.

Help us help San Ramon maintain our quality of life, our green hills and open space.

Thank you,

Jim Gibbon, AIA

Jim Blikenstaff, Sierra Club

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This information was submitted to San Ramon News. We at San Ramon News support the efforts involved in maintaining a good quality of life, and keeping the hills and open space open for future generations to come. What we do now, will have a major impact for the future.

This City Council, Mayor H. Abram Wilson, Council Members: Scott Perkins, Carol Rowley, David Hudson, and Jim Livingstone, think they don't have to abide by what the voters have said about not building on the ridges.

So, if you can help in any way, it would be much appreciated.

The San Ramon News Team

San Ramon City Council Election Signups Deadline Aug. 10

Three San Ramon Council Seats are up for Election

The November General Election is right around the corner, and three seats are up for election.

August 10th is the final day of sign ups for the general election. The filing fee is $900.00.

Anyone interested in running and also interested in having a voice in the current state of affairs, should consider running on a team ticket. Each candidate will have as much as $28,000 to spend maximum on this election. Three good candidates, to make a difference, is what is needed. Having an organization to back a group of three that stands for truth in city government, maintaining a good quality of life in San Ramon, maintaining open spaces and hillsides, and bringing an openness back to the City Council, would be the ideal solution to the current state of affairs.

The Mayor and two City Council seats are up for election. Mayor H. Abram Wilson and council members Scott Perkins and Carol Rowley have said they are running for re-election.

Mayor H. Abram Wilson plans to jump ship from Mayor, if re-elected, and run for the Assembly District 15 seat, currently occupied by Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, if Houston is termed out. Houston is currently in his third term. News Media Source: Contra Costa Times

Wilson, Perkins, and Rowley want to increase traffic and congestion, increase building on the hillsides, and continue in their back room dealings with Alex Mehran of Sunset Development with a downtown center that has not been fully exposed for what it is. Namely, the City Center as it currently is being portrayed will be a divider of San Ramon, not a uniter, and the financial terms which have never been fully exposed to the people are yet to be determined what the final cost will be to the San Ramon taxpayers. The cost has been reported to be more than $750,000,000.00 to build it.

Here is what we know so far about the City Center. Planned eight story office buildings, more traffic and more congestion that will spill onto other city streets, a proposed upscale shopping area with an upscale anchor store (which has not been found to date), and a upscale hotel which also has not been found. It is important to note, that just because someone wants an upscale anchor and hotel for the shopping center, does not mean that an upscale anchor wants to set up a store or hotel in this part of San Ramon.

One has to wonder, what type of land swaps, reduced or elimination of city taxes and building fees, and other under-the-table dealings has the City Council agreed to with Sunset Development. What is Sunset Development holding over the head of San Ramon? Could it be that there are some hidden clauses in properties that have been given to San Ramon by Sunset Development, in exchange for a major reduction or elimination of permit fees and taxes? What type of liability issues are the San Ramon taxpaying citizens facing in the future with this San Ramon City Center deal?

The San Ramon News Team.