California Developer Offers Growth-Wary Livermore a Hard Deal to Pass Up

By Robert Carlsen

Los Angeles-based Pardee Homes showed the Livermore Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors a detailed plan last week for a 1,400-acre, 2,450-unit residential development for a protected parcel of land north of the city.

But it was not just the housing and tree-lined street designs that floored the board about the proposed Livermore Trails project - Pardee upped the ante by offering $69 million to build schools in the development as well as helping out the city's other schools, and $90 million more for parks and open space.

After studying Measure D, which passed in Alameda County in 2000 and protects this parcel of rolling hills in North Livermore just west of Springtown and a mile from downtown, Pardee spent two years talking to residents and city officials to get a feel for what kind of development might allay voter concerns.

Pardee's Vice President of Community Development Carlene Matchniff, who is based at the company's Northern California office in Pleasanton, said she hopes the plan will go before the voters next year in order to return the parcel to the City of Livermore's jurisdiction, thus negating the protections of Measure D.

According to Pardee, the proposal will be submitted to the voters of Livermore for approval in order to move the city's Urban Growth Boundary and amend the General Plan.

Press reports say that Livermore city officials, including its mayor, are notoriously anti-growth. Hence, Pardee's perks.

Matchniff said that nearly two-thirds of the Livermore Trails project will be dedicated for open space preservation and public facilities. Housing development would be limited to less than 450 acres with a maximum of 2,450 homes built over a 10-year period.

Pardee decided it would commit to finance a series of public facilities and make several substantial financial contributions to local schools and other community programs in order to get a more positive view of the project as well as helping out the community in various ways, Matchniff said.

Among other things, Pardee said it will donate land to the Livermore School District for a 42-acre high school and nine-acre elementary school and pay $27 million in required school fees; donate an additional $5 million to the district to help with deficits; donate $100,000 to the Las Positas Community College Foundation to create Green Building educational programs; donate the land and build a 130-acre Sports Park for $27 million and take care of maintenance for the first four years; donate approximately 750 acres for permanent open space for trails; donate 1.5 acres of land and $4 million for the construction of a public safety center for police and fire; and build a replica of the local, historic May School, a one-room school house built in 1869 and destroyed by fire in 1979, to be used for community meetings and historic displays.

Matchniff said all of the community donations and the details about the Livermore Trails plan will be specifically referenced in the ballot initiative.

Pardee said it would commit to build 15 percent of the homes as affordable under HUD and City of Livermore standards, 10 percent for seniors and at least 25 percent for middle-income families.