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Is it safe to build in the hills?

by AJ Fardella

My family and I and most all of the OHCG members and participants live in houses built on a hill.  The name of our organization is Oak Hills Community Group. We live in houses on the hill.  For us to be opposed to developing in the Pittsburg Hillsides would obviously be hypocritical. From personal experience I can definitively say that building in the hills is safe, if it is done correctly.

In December 2005 there were record-breaking torrential rains.  For over 30 days straight the hills we live in were doused with more water in a given time frame than California has seen since records have been kept. The drainage and storm drain system worked so well that not even the retention basins were needed.  Not a single problem with mud or landslides was reported.

A developer using an ill-conceived grading plan along with an over-zealous Grading Contractor caused the only landslide that endangered a dwelling or person. The City of Pittsburg approved the applicant’s plan (William Lyons Homes), which gave them what they asked for without consideration for recommendations given by peer Geological Engineers who reviewed the grading plan.

From my bedroom window at 209 Havenwood Circle I can and did see the slide before and after. I literally commented to my ex-wife Lisa that the cut they were making behind those homes was insane and was going to fall down “like a cave-in in a coal mine” a day before it fell.

I think the Oak Hills Community has a uniquely empirical set of facts which have shown us good hillside development, like the ones we live in and bad development, like Vista Del Mar.  Vista Del Mar is basically being graded down to three huge plateaus, disregarding the contours of the topography adjacent to their development, has caused landslides and has generated dust to irritate all of us.

So development in hillsides done right is best done with

  1. An EIR
  2. A proper grading plan, which remediate loose soils and is esthetically and functionally based and considers its neighbors topography.
  3. Drainage Control which sends all water to a storm drain system.
  4. Continuity with the surrounding developments.
  5. An Open Space component.
  6. No more than 3 homes per acre
  7. Requirements for planting of trees and landscaping.
  8. Provisions and plans for educational infrastructure to support the population increase.
  9. Proper Police Staffing and equipment to include more territory.

Is Hillside Development Necessary?Pittsburg is on the upswing because of redevelopment dollars that come from new development.  Huge quantities of Public Monies are being put to great use by Pittsburg Redevelopment Agency revitalizing Pittsburg’s Downtown.

If Pittsburg wants this new Downtown to have patrons with disposable income to fuel it’s success, it’s absolutely necessary.  If we finish out Pittsburg including the expansion of the urban limit line, which Measure P provided, along with other well-conceived development that is on the way, Pittsburg/Baypoint should be a thriving diverse city with something for everyone.

What Does New Development Offer The City and the Region?

  1. A segment of upper income population that it does not have.  These people will enhance and support the culture, economy and politics of Pittsburg/Baypoint.
  2. A larger tax base to support our City
  3. An extremely nice addition to our many diverse neighborhoods.
  4. Preservation of Open Space
  5. Completion of San Marco Blvd to Bailey Road
  6. New voters to balance political influence at City Hall

What Does New Development Offer the AreaIf we are talking about the Seeno’s future plans for the land Measure P added to the urban limit line the answer is

  1. A segment of upper income population that it does not have.  These people will enhance and support the culture, economy and politics of Pittsburg/Baypoint.
  2. A larger tax base to support our City
  3. An extremely nice addition to our many diverse neighborhoods.
  4. Preservation of Open Space
  5. Completion of San Marco Blvd to Bailey Road
  6. New voters to balance political influence at City Hall

What else should people understand? That OHCG and I opposed measure P vigorously. I was personally the hardest working campaigner against expanding the urban limit line.  I walked precincts delivered lawn signs made phone calls and stood on corners to protect our signs that were disappearing.  Unfortunately P was passed.  Some or all (depending on the height limit) of this measure P expansion will be effected by the Hillside Guidelines. That being said now this land is part of Pittsburg and should be treated as such.  There are already in the General Plan guidelines for development in the Hillsides.

Creating reasonable guidelines for hillside development is a good thing, but should not contravene the General Plan to the point that it is subverted beyond recognition.

I feel that the current recommendations being made by staff to the Planning Commission do not represent what is best. What is being presented to the PC contains a tally sheet which does not have a wide spectrum of options for the Commissioners to choose from.  Hopefully the Planning Commission members can make their own modifications to the sheet and to the guidelines to produce something that represents what is best for the Pittsburg/Baypoint community. Otherwise it will stifle the development of these lands which are now part of the City of Pittsburg (at least they will be after lafco votes on it).

Then we will have safeguards for building in the Hills of Pittsburg that make sense, not what amounts to a moratorium on Hillside Development.