Pittsburg's hills are still in jeopardy

Pittsburg's draft Hillside Development Performance Standards are still a blank check for developers.

Concerned residents, the Sierra Club, the Greenbelt Alliance, Save Mount Diablo, and others have requested that the proposed ordinance be strengthened to actually protect the hills of Pittsburg. The ordinance would not apply to land below 500 feet in elevation - thus excluding the whole Montreaux property and parts of Faria from the standards. The ordinance would not protect visually sensitive areas, hilltops, and ridgelines from development and grading.

At the city's "workshop" on the ordinance, little was changed. The event had been publicized as a workshop to begin at 7 pm on Mon., March 26. Late the Friday before, the session was rescheduled to 5:00. On this short notice we still were able to turn out 50 or so folks to the meeting. They wore "Save Our Hills" labels. After the Planning Department had given a lengthy presentation (not addressing, however, the problems we had previously pointed out), it turned out that instead of the advertised workshop format, people would get a standard three minutes each to speak. There was no discussion. At the conclusion of the "hearingshop" we found out that the Planning Board was scheduling another "workshop" for April 18.

WhatYouCanDo

To work with the Sierra Club to protect the Pittsburg hills, contact or call (510) 848 0800, ext. 306

For more information see the Save Our Hills web site:

Dennis Linsley