The
Redevelopment Agency can seize your property without your consent!The
Redevelopment Agency can seize your property without your consent!
The redevelopment area runs roughly from El Portal to Appian Way along San Pablo Dam Road, and up Appian Way all the way to Valley View including the triangle. If you own property on these two strips, your property could be subject to seizure using the eminent domain powers of the Redevelopment Agency.
Redevelopment advocates will tell you that it will help the community, especially minorities, the elderly, and the poor. In fact, redevelopment hurts the most vulnerable members of our society. The only ones who benefit are development interests with little or no stake in El Sobrante.
A Study by the prestigious National Center for Public Policy Research concluded that "smart growth" and other redevelopment activities hurt the underclass at disproportionately high rates.
If the proposed type of redevelopment had been adopted nationally ten years ago:
1) 260,000 minority homeowners would not own their own homes today;
2) one million homeowners of all races would not own their own homes today;
3) the average home price would have increased by $10,000 in 2002 dollars;
4) the average cost of renting a home or apartment would have increased six percent.
The End of El Sobrante as we know it!
Are you ready for SuperStores and strip malls on San Pablo Dam Road and Appian Way? Read Redevelopment, the Unknown Government, an online book which describes and documents what redevelopment really is all about.
Can
Redevelopment be stopped? Yes, by concerned citizens like you and your neighbors.
Read Chapter 10 of "Redevelopment, the Unknown Government".
Come to the El Sobrante Municipal Advisory Council ("MAC") meetings held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7AM behind the El Sobrante Library in the meeting room and the El Sobrante Planning and Zoning ("P&Z") meetings on the 2nd Thursday of each month at the same location.
LET YOUR NEIGHBORS know what is happening.
Call the Contra Costa Redevelopment Agency at 925-335-1275 and request copies of all information on the "Downtown El Sobrante Redevelopment project."
Call the Contra Costa Community Development Dept. at 925-335-1290 and request the info packet entitled "Downtown El Sobrante Transportation and Land Use Plan". This shows in detail the plans for the San Pablo Dan Rd. corridor including pathways into the neighborhood behind the Library from Dam Rd. and another major road above Taco Bell.
Redevelopment plans HAVE been stopped in communities where the citizens get involved, go to community meetings and let their public officials know they are against redevelopment.
The community of Oak Grove, Oregon (a suburb of the "smart growth"/redevelopment model city of Portland) managed to save their little community, one very similar to El Sobrante, by coming out in big numbers, carrying signs and letting their public officials they were AGAINST redevelopment.
OTHER REDEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AROUND THE COUNTY:
***Proposed EL CERRITO DEL NORTE 7/30/03 workshop in tiny room barely big enough to hold 20 people - PHOTOS here plus READ commentary from local activist
***Citizens of the City of Martinez are also fighting the proposed formation of a redevelopment agency there - click HERE to see their website. See 7/23/03 letter published in the W. County Times from Martinez City councilman, Tim Platt, urging a probe on Redevelopment!
The Pleasant
Hill BART station area is an example of "redevelopment" gone badly
awry!! Letter from irate
nearby resident and PHOTOS showing the induced
"blight" in the area
Dateline:
April 28, 2003 - There they go again! - the Contra Costa Redevelopment Agency
is entering another community (Montalvin Manor) and TAKING OVER!!. Link
Here
Redevelopment
is a problem in other areas, too...>>>
Press release on "bogus blight" finding from Castle Coalition's Institute for Justice in Norwood, OH
Cities across the country have been using eminent domain to force people off their land, so that private developers can build more expensive homes and offices that will pay more in property taxes than the buildings they're replacing...Transcript of 9/28/03 "60 Minutes" TV program on eminent domain abuse
Redevelopment Nightmare in American Canyon, Napa County, CA.
What happened with Redevelopment in Reno, Nevada is a sad and all too common example of redevelopment gone awry.
Redevelopment Horror Stories from across the nation and the heroic efforts of citizens to fight government abuses.
Website for San Jose
anti-redevelopment abuse group Randall O'Toole's The Thoreau Institute
Press coverage of Randal O'Toole's 9/10/03 talk on the "smart growth" assault on our property and automobiles
Regional Planning doesn't work
Stop Government Abuses of Eminent Domain
Castle Coalition: Citizens Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse
Threatened homeowners ask: What is blight?The answer depends on where you live and who wants to build there.
Redevelopment Abuse - articles and documents relating to redevelopment, documenting its successes, problems and consequences.
Redevelopment,
the Unknown Government, an
online book which describes and documents what redevelopment really is all about.
Redevelopment robs from the poor and gives to the rich, all in the name of "progress".
Redevelopment corrupts the democratic process - the community gets little effective voice in the redevelopment process, but guess who foots the bill?
Understanding Plannerspeak - Common buzz-words and phrases used by redevelopment advocates.
Why Metropolitan Planning Doesn't Work - Redevelopment advocates claim that redevelopment improves city life throughout an urban area. Portland, Oregon had quite a different experience.
Government
Theft, Top Ten Abuses of Eminent Domain 
The ten most egregious abuses of eminent domain for private purposes from 1998
to 2002. These horror stories show how government can seize private property
to hand over to development interests. Will El Sobrante make the next Hit Parade?
Cities Often Misapply Eminent-Domain Rule - A Wall Street Journal article on how property is taken from small businesses to give to larger competitors by local governments.
The Community Character Act - Of course, Congress is involved, and, as usual, guess who gets screwed (the little guy).
Study
Says Minorities and Poor Harmed by Anti-Sprawl Policies (Press Release)
- Who benefits from Redevelopment? Big development interests, not the community,
and certainly not the poor or minorities. Full Study available here
Smart Growth isn't all that smart, in fact it is better termed "Self-serving, hope the public is Stupid, Growth".
The San Mateo County Times in an Editorial objects to the strong-arm tactics of the local government in Redwood City, which is destroying small businesses to build a multiplex cinema. They are graciously allowing the former owners to rent space in the new complex (at more than double their current payments).