Letter Writing Campaign

A Sacramento developer has proposed a residential development in Moraga on the land east of Rheem Blvd. between Moraga Rd. and St. Mary’s Rd. The “Rancho Laguna 2” project would consist of 35 lots: 21 along the ridgeline and another 14 on the valley next to Rheem Blvd. Writing a polite comment letter is one of the most important ways you can have an impact on this project.

A draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) is available for public review at the Moraga Planning Department (329 Rheem Blvd.), the Hacienda (2100 Donald Dr.) and the Moraga Library, and is posted on Moraga’s website at http://www.ci.moraga.ca.us/moraga_planning_department.php

The Planning Department will accept written comments on the DEIR until 5:00 pm on September 25, 2006.

1. Address your letter to the Moraga Planning Department at the following address:

Lori Salamack

Planning Director

Moraga Planning Department

329 Rheem Blvd.

Moraga, CA 94556

Email: lori@moraga.ca.us

2. Please include the following line at the beginning of your letter:

Re: Rancho Laguna 2 DEIR

3. Letter Content and Review Process:

Under California law, the Town of Moraga is required to respond, in writing, to all comments on the DEIR submitted prior to the comment deadline. The written responses will be published in a Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR). The FEIR will then be reviewed by the Planning Commission to determine whether it can be certified as having adequately analyzed and mitigated the project’s environmental impacts, and will be used to help the Planning Commission decide whether to approve the project.

The DEIR must analyze impacts on air quality, hydrology and water quality, geology and soils, biological resources, noise, land use, public utilities and community services, traffic, aesthetics and open space, water supply, schools, cultural resources, and health and safety.

LETTER CONTENT

Members of the public are encouraged to comment on impacts analyzed in the DEIR that concern them most. Here are some issues you may wish to comment on:

RIDGELINE DEVELOPMENT AND VIEWS

• Moraga’s General Plan includes numerous policies stressing protection of ridgeline views from development. However, the project’s ridgeline homes will be visible from Rheem Blvd., Bollinger Canyon Rd., Joseph Dr., Birchwood Dr., St. Mary’s Rd., and the Rohrer area of Lafayette.

• The DEIR concludes that the visual impacts caused by these ridgeline lots cannot be fully mitigated by landscaping or other measures. Such impacts are called “significant and unavoidable,” and the only way to avoid them would be to remove ridgeline lots from the project entirely.

PROJECT DENSITY AND ZONING:

• The site’s 180 acres are zoned as “open space” which restricts the housing density to 1 home per 20, 10, or 5 acres. Which of these densities applies depends on “high risk” factors such as unstable or eroding soils, landslides, natural drainages, and intermittent springs. “High risk” open space lands are limited to only 1 home per 20 acres. Despite the site’s 44 mapped landslides, expansive soils, seeps, springs, and drainages, the developer is nonetheless seeking approval for 35 lots— 26 lots more than the 9-home maximum allowed at 1 home per 20 acres.

SOIL INSTABILITY:

• Development of 35 lots on this unstable site will require slide stabilization and significant grading, and may cause sediment, erosion, water quality, geotechnical, and public-safety impacts that are difficult to predict and mitigate.

TRAFFIC

• The DEIR’s traffic impact analysis studied four major intersections within Moraga, but did not analyze cumulative traffic impacts from this and other Moraga developments on routes out of Moraga through Lafayette and Orinda.

DESTRUCTION OF WILDLIFE HABITAT

• The developer’s preferred method to repair the landslides undermining Rheem Blvd. is to fill the adjacent creek with soil excavated from the ridgeline lots. Most of the creek, as well as its riparian canopy of willows, oaks, and other trees, would be destroyed. Stabilization alternatives that would preserve the creek are technically feasible, but have been dismissed as too expensive.

• The DEIR notes that the creek, trees, and uplands that will be lost are habitat for many species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians including the threatened California red-legged frog.

• The project would cut 64 large native trees and eliminate stands of several species of significant native plants.

• The project would add more development to the only remaining wildlife corridor connecting Las Trampas Wilderness to the Lafayette Reservoir.

PLEASE WRITE A COMMENT LETTER ON “RANCHO LAGUNA 2”