Oakley Press_01.01.10

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YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

Vol. 10, No. 1

Including Surrounding Communities

Petition blocks housing project by Samie Hartley Staff Writer The Committee to Stop Rosewood, comprised of more than 100 Oakley residents, has successfully obtained enough Oakley voters’ signatures to put a temporary halt to the proposed Rosewood Estates housing project off of Laurel Road. Of the more than 2,250 signatures collected in 52 petition booklets in a period of three weeks, 1,925 were valid signatures of registered Oakley voters – more than 10 percent (1,400 signatures) of the registered voter population needed for the petition to be legitimate. Now that the petition has been validated by the Contra Costa County Elections Division, the Oakley City Council must either rescind its Oct. 13 decision (to rezone 13.9 acres

from a general agriculture district to a planned development district to accommodate the proposed 76unit Rosewood Estates housing project) or put the decision before the people in a special election. Committee to Stop Rosewood Chairman Brad Nix said while he’d like the decision to go before the people, he expects the council will withdraw its decision and visit the topic at a later date. “Personally, I’d love to see an election and let the people of Oakley make the decision,” he said. “That way the people are truly heard, but the council is scared of that because they know what will happen if the people get a chance to vote. The people don’t want high-density homes in Oakley. The public is overwhelmingly in see Petition page 18A

www.thepress.net

Staff Writer Opponents of the proposed Delta 2-Gates project won the battle if not the war last week when the Obama administration called for the delay of the controversial test plan to save the Delta smelt. “We’re excited that they are slowing it down, but I’m not super surprised,” said Mike Guzzardo, publicity chairman for the Discovery Bay-based group San Francisco Bay and Delta Foundation (SFBDF). “It’s a minor victory, but we’re happy.” The Federal Interim Act report, released Dec. 22, promises a stronger working relationship between state and federal agencies as it pertains to California’s drinking water and the declining Bay-Delta environment. The 23-page report also calls for, among other items, a reevaluation of the scientific process and cost efficiency behind the proposed 2-Gates program. “Federal agencies have undertaken intensive review and permitting efforts on this project in recent months,” reads an excerpt from the report. “As the reviews have proceeded, it has become clear that the project purpose could most

January 1, 2010

Looking Back TO ALL OUR PRESS READERS

FAREWELL 2009

Press File Photo

lly Jenkins, third from left, in back, returned home to Oakley in October after undergoing a double lung transplant. Her story appears this week on Page 5A as part of the Press’ annual Looking Back retrospective.

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Obama orders delay in 2-Gates plan by Ruth Roberts

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“ We’re excited that they are slowing it down ... It’s a minor victory, but we’re happy.

Mike Guzzardo, publicity chairman, San Francisco Bay and Delta Foundation expeditiously be advanced by first proving (or disproving) the underlying hypothesis that must be established for the 2-Gates project to be effective as a potential water supply enhancement.” The 2-Gates project is a five-year, $80 million, experimental program designed to save the Delta smelt by rerouting them away from the water pumps on Old and Middle rivers in Byron. The project is a joint venture by the State Department of Water Resources, the Federal Bureau of Reclamation and the Southern California Metropolitan Water District, and would implement the installation of gates at Old River

between Holland Tract and Bacon Island, plus a Connection Slough between Mandeville and Bacon Island. The automatic gates would be closed at various times of the year for as much as 20 hours per day, depending on flood tides. Over the past few months, local groups and organizations up and down the Delta have lobbied for a halt to the gates project. In Discovery Bay, the SFBDF was able to extend the public comment period on the project, and eventually hopes to force the Bureau of Reclamation to provide an Environmental Impact Report for the Discovery Bay and Delta regions. Members of the SFBDF also met recently, along with Congressman Jerry McNerney and Supervisor Mary Piepho, with the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation to discuss the 2-Gates project. “Clearly this was all already in the works (the plans to delay the project) before we had the meeting,” said Guzzardo. “But it was still good (to meet) and it was a good first step toward local government and citizens working together to find a solution.” Pete Lucero, public affairs officer for the

ePress easy!

see 2-Gates page 18A

As we’ve done with the first edition of the year for a decade now, this week the Press looks back at some of the stories that graced our pages over the last 12 months. As always, the selection isn’t meant to suggest what were the most important, but to provide a sampling of what went on in the year just past. As always, we consider it our privilege to have been a part of life around here and hope that 2010 brings prosperity, peace and happiness to all our readers. Thanks for sharing with us, and enjoy this stroll down memory lane.

INSIDE Calendar ..........................19B Classifieds ........................13B Cop Logs ..........................15A Entertainment ................18B Food .................................10B Health & Beauty ............... 8B Milestones ......................... 7B Outdoors ...........................8A Sports ................................. 1B WebExtras! ....................... 1B

Flip the online pages.

Browse the pages of the Press just as they appear in the hard copy at www.thepress.net. See page 7A.

FOR MOVIE TIMES SEE PAGE 5A


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