Daily Review Online: Kids versus frogs and snakes? An easy call for...EarthJustice!

This is a good example of the kinds of concessions that local governments try to get from developers before they will issue building permits. What I find interesting here is the way matters got more complicated through the involvement of an environmentalist group...EarthJustice! By Michelle Meyers, STAFF WRITER

HAYWARD -- Conservationists who have been blamed for putting millions of dollars of school funding in jeopardy by getting an injunction to halt the Blue Rock Country Club project have offered what they consider a "win-win" solution. EarthJustice attorney Greg Loarie, on behalf of co-plaintiffs Hayward Area Planning Association and the Center for Biological Diversity, proposed a compromise this week that -- if agreed to by the developer -- would allow grading and construction of the Walpert Ridge project's 614 upscale homes and elementary school. The injunction would still block the expansive golf course that crosses into a critical habitat area for the endangered Alameda whipsnake and California red-legged frog. "If the developer is willing, the school and the housing construction can proceed while the court decides the habitat issue," said HAPA chairman Sherman Lewis. Blue Rock developer Steve Miller, who hadn't had much time Tuesday to contemplate the proposal, said initially that "you can't just lop off a piece of the project" without affecting other components like environmental review, mitigation, water runoff and engineering. "The golf course isn't a separate project, it's a part of the total project," Miller said, adding that he couldn't agree to dropping the golf course without getting approvals from all of the related agencies.The school district, along with other community members, recently jumped into the legal fray between the parties because the injunction, as it stands, will result in the loss of $8.7 million in state bond funding for the proposed school.
The school district, along with other community members, recently jumped into the legal fray between the parties because the injunction, as it stands, will result in the loss of $8.7 million in state bond funding for the proposed school. That money is forfeited if the school district can't show the state by June 17 that the project is progressing. The $8.7 million is the difference between a new bare-bones Blue Rock elementary school for 350 students that the developer is required to build, and a much needed new state-of-the-artBlue Rock elementary school for 650 students. The school district is in a state of fiscal crisis, must make $8.5 million in budget reductions to avoid state takeover and is facing a serious overcrowding problem.


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So, we have multiple agencies and a school district all making demands on a developer, and here comes EarthJustice! to jump into the middle of it, Lorax-style, and try to squelch the golf course. I suppose that is one of the major selling points of the development, so the developer doesn't want to build without it. And the school district needs that money or they get taken over by the state. But, hey, let's get our priorities straight. Kids can learn, even with 50 or 60, even a hundred, to a classroom. And maybe the houses will sell just well with a swamp instead of a golf course. The main thing is, how can we even imagine a world without lots of Alameda whipsnakes and California red-legged frogs slithering and hopping around?