Editorial Editorial (February 25, 2005)

Voice of the people

Local grassroots activism took new roots last month as nearly 1,500 from throughout the Tri-Valley packing the Granada High School gymnasium brought Livermore Airport expansion plans to a halt. The Livermore City Council and the city's Airport Manager Leander Hauri had backed a federally funded study in August 1999 to update the airport's 1975 Master Plan based on increases in both airport traffic and the Tri-Valley population it serves. Early on, much like initial efforts on updating municipal General Plans Pleasanton is undertaking now, public interest builds as individuals recognize impacts on their communities.

That's why there was little objection to preliminary plans for the Livermore Airport until Hauri and consultants released their comprehensive draft Master Plan Update early last year. Airport watchers became alarmed, and with good reason. The plan called for increasing the annual number of flights the airport could handle from 257,000 recorded in 2001 to 370,000 by 2020. More troubling, especially for those in Dublin and in Pleasanton's Vintage Hills and Ruby Hill communities whose homes lie under frequently use flight paths, was the plan to extend a now-shorter second runway and add hangar and fuel capacity to accommodate more business jets, from 2,220 in 2001 to 18,500 by 2020. Hauri and the consultants didn't say that would be the number of added flights in 2020, only that the airport would be expanded to serve that many. Actually, the number of planes using the Livermore field has dropped since 2001, but the significant increase in capacity is what drove the grassroots opposition that successfully stopped the Master Plan Update in its tracks.

Livermore officials clearly stumbled in looking only at an old Master Plan that needed to be updated to meet federal guidelines, and not at nearby residents and their communities. Back in 1975, before Ruby Hill and much of Vintage Hills or most of Dublin were built, recreational flying in and out of the Livermore Airport was seldom a problem. But drive along Isabel Road and Airway Boulevard these days and notice the rooftops of hundreds of homes around the field. Even with an airport protection zone that prevents new home construction close to the airport, it takes homeowners only a few minutes to drive from Vineyard Avenue and Ruby Hill Drive to the edge of the airport runways, and less than a minute for a departing flight to cross over these same homes. Hauri points out that his Master Plan Update would have removed a provision in the 1975 plan that sets aside land for a commercial terminal at Livermore, but the numbers of protestors who gathered together on short notice last month would likely be miniscule compared to those who would assemble to object to any plan to turn the airport into a commercial field.

The large turnout at the Livermore Airport public hearings, which followed similar but smaller-size protests over a used car auction business near homes along I-580 a year ago, show the strength in grassroots politics. Both Dublin and Pleasanton have seen similar protests, although again on a much smaller scale, to local planning initiatives. Hundreds packed the Pleasanton City Hall last year to object to plans to expand the waterslides at Shadow Cliffs Regional Park. They lost when the City Council approved the project anyhow. Earlier, hundreds packed the same meeting room to object to the construction of a high-density assisted living and skilled nursing care facility next to St. Augustine Catholic Church. The Planning Commission listened to the protests and indicated they would not approve the project without major changes to satisfy nearby homeowners. The developer dropped its plans.

As Pleasanton officials continue their series of public hearings on updating the city's 1996 General Plan, it can no doubt count on more crowded meeting rooms over public debates already under way to extend Stoneridge Drive into Livermore, to build a freeway interchange at West Las Positas Boulevard, new houses above Kottinger Ranch and subsidized low-income housing on some of the few remaining residentially zoned acreage still available. Besides turning out in record numbers to vote in last November's municipal election, it's good to see the public also actively voicing their views eye-to-eye with local lawmakers.

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