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Brentwood landowners attempt to appease Measure F critics

By Rowena Coetsee - Contra Costa Times, on May 4, 2010

Property owners at the center of a ballot initiative that would establish a more expansive urban limit line here have made several promises regarding future development in an attempt to assuage the opposition.

Five landowners who collectively own nearly all the 740 acres that Measure F's proposed new urban limit line would encompass recently signed an agreement that any homes built in that area won't be occupied until June 2015.

The document also stipulates that developers won't seek to build any apartments unless the city wants them.

In addition, the covenant calls for a special tax on homes built on this property that would generate about $100,000 annually.

The revenue would pay the salary and benefits of one full-time paramedic at the fire station on Balfour Road.

East Contra Costa Fire District, which operates this and seven other stations, currently uses paramedics who work for a private emergency responder because it doesn't have a paramedic of its own.

About 6.5 percent of the property tax revenue Brentwood landowners currently generate goes to the fire district.

The point of the agreement is to dispel critics' fears that if Measure F succeeds, developers will start building hundreds of homes right away, said Tom Koch, a consultant representing the landowners.

The development agreement is an addendum to the measure, taking effect if the initiative passes.

Opponents argue that the 1,300 single- and multifamily units the initiative's development agreement allows will generate more traffic on Balfour Road and American Avenue, which are already congested.

They also contend that the 200 multifamily units the document allows could be built as low-income apartments, saddling Brentwood with more crime and other problems.

The memorandum of agreement should put that concern to rest, said Koch.

"We have no desire to build apartments — none," he said, noting that voters erroneously assume that's what "multifamily" means when the term actually refers to condominiums and townhouses as well.

Still, the promises aren't appeasing Measure F's most outspoken critics.

Brentwood resident Kathy Griffin says postponing the construction of whatever homes go up only means that the road-widening the landowners have said they will finance will be delayed.

The money for enlarging Balfour Road and American Avenue would come from the developer fees that builders pay just before they break ground.

She wants the currently unincorporated land either to remain zoned for agricultural use, or, if Brentwood eventually annexes the 740 acres, she hopes that voters will stick with the city's plans for developing it.

Measure F's development agreement would supplant those intentions, allowing builders to erect many more homes than the 579 that Brentwood's general plan currently allows while including significantly fewer parks.

"The overall development plan needs to be rejected — not parts of it," Griffin said.

Seth Adams of Save Mount Diablo calls the agreement "meaningless," saying the property owners agreed to postpone development because they're waiting until the economy improves anyway.

As for sweetening the deal by agreeing to a special tax for paramedic service, Adams said the benefit to the public pales by comparison with what the landowners stand to gain.

Once that property is brought within the urban limit line, the ability to develop it will increase land values exponentially, he said.

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