In November, Brentwood voters are being asked to expand the Urban Limit Line to include 815 acres of Ginochio family land---to allow future development on 590 acres, The Vineyards at Deer Creek (80% of it senior housing). Measure L would protect three times as much land, three square miles (1,785 acres) of the Marsh Creek watershed: 225 acres onsite and 1,560 acres of other incredible Ginochio land. The Measure L area is north of Balfour Road and Heritage High School, and east of Deer Valley Road.

Because of Save Mount Diablo’s work requiring that Urban Limit Line changes be voter approved, Brentwood voters get to decide.

Info: www.YesonLforBrentwood.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/YesonLforBrentwood

Marsh Creek starts on Mount Diablo in Morgan Territory and flows through Brentwood, to Big Break in Oakley. Save Mount Diablo and partners such as East Bay Regional Park District, the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy and California State Parks have protected 15 miles of Marsh Creek’s 34-mile length and about a third of the entire watershed. 

Three-quarters of the 60,000-acre Marsh Creek watershed are undeveloped. Measure L would protect another 1,785 acres, almost three-square miles—for public recreation, wildlife habitat, water quality, and flood control benefits.

As part of Measure L, Save Mount Diablo helped negotiate protection of 425 acres of Brentwood Resource Lands and 1,360 acres of Ginochio land for parks and recreational trails (the Diablo Resource Lands), further up Marsh Creek and on the slopes of Mount Diablo. They are top priorities for protection and amazing wildlife habitat with incredible views. They’re a once-in-a-generation opportunity as part of Measure L.

These Diablo Resource Lands are on either side of Curry Canyon. 720 acres include Rhine Canyon and rise up onto Diablo’s main peaks and Prospectors Gap. Another 640 acres include Sulfur Springs and Windy Point, the border between Curry Canyon and Riggs Canyon.

Our theory: if developers need voter approval, they have to convince the public their project is a good one, and they must balance impacts with a lot of public benefit.

Brentwood residents will hear about those public benefits during the Measure L campaign—such as less traffic and school impacts from senior housing, and significant benefits to the fire district, much greater than normal developer requirements.
 
The benefits we focus on are land and wildlife protection, recreation, fewer environmental impacts, scenic views, and heritage trees. Plus the big benefit of continuing to build a “Green Wall” of parks along the Urban Limit Line to create permanent protection.

ANTIOCH or BRENTWOOD?
Before 2000, the Measure L Ginochio property east of Deer Valley Road was inside the ULL. Now it’s outside. 200 acres of Ginochio property west of Deer Valley are currently inside the Antioch Urban Limit Line.

The Measure L area could be developed by either Antioch or Brentwood. It's in the planning areas of both cities, and the Antioch city limits stretches south of Balfour Road. 

Measure L will help protect land along the Line and strengthen it. We negotiated with Blackhawk-Nunn to block the Ginochio 200 acres west of Deer Valley Road from development. That would help limit Antioch from extending south.

We’re Creating a “Green Wall” of Parks South and West of Brentwood
Public land protection near Brentwood has skyrocketed. While Save Mount Diablo has helped slow growth, we and our partners—have expanded public lands.

We have protected more than 50,000 acres of open space in East County in a 20-mile ‘Green Wall” stretching southeast from Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve to Los Vaqueros—that’s an area two and a half times bigger than Mt. Diablo State Park.

The 4,000-acre Marsh Creek State Park and the new 3,000-acre Deer Valley Regional Preserve now border Brentwood on the south and west, although they haven’t yet opened to the public (we’re working on that too). They help make the Urban Limit Line permanent.
 
We’ve expanded parks on the most sensitive land—such as Roddy Ranch—from Black Diamond Mines four miles east to Deer Valley Road.

The road is a good city boundary. It amounts to a racetrack a lot of the time and too many accidents have made the Measure L Ginochio property infeasible for cattle ranching. Just north of this boundary, our “Let Antioch Voters Decide” initiative will help restrict development west of Deer Valley Road too.

Right now, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to balance Measure L with protection of other important Ginochio properties.
 

The Measure L Area…
…is 815 acres of former Ginochio cattle ranch that has been disked for years. It’s not part of the important irrigated agricultural land east of Brentwood. It has limited wildlife value.

225 acres of these 815 acres will be protected as public trails, open space and vineyards. There are some wetlands onsite which will be mitigated (protected onsite or compensated with other wetlands protected nearby).

The most important other resources are heritage-sized oaks in the northeast corner, for which Save Mount Diablo has negotiated protection.
 
West of Deer Valley Road, another 200 acres of more threatened Ginochio land (inside the Antioch Urban Limit Line and city limits) will be blocked from development—a beautiful rocky area of large oaks separating Antioch and Lone Tree Valley/the Sand Creek area from Brentwood and Horse Valley.

Together the two areas make up 425 acres of Brentwood Resource Lands, which will further strengthen the Urban Limit Line. They’re bordered by Deer Valley Regional Preserve (the former Roddy Ranch) west of Deer Valley Road and will connect public trails from Brentwood to the Preserve. Again, that will help limit Antioch from expanding further south. 

The Ginochio Family
The Ginochio family arrived in Contra Costa in 1867 and settled in Concord and the coal mining town of Nortonville. Over 150 years they created the biggest cattle ranching operation in the county.

The Ginochios own the most important properties west, north and east of Mt. Diablo, much of it in the Marsh Creek watershed. They have never proposed development on any of it except for their property between Antioch and Brentwood. But each generation has more family members, with fewer of them interested in ranching. Measure L is a way to protect a lot of the Ginochios’ most sensitive property near Brentwood and further up Marsh Creek.

Measure L and moving the Urban Limit Line is one step in the planning process. There are many, and at each step project design gets more detailed.  Save Mount Diablo will be involved at each step, helping to protect views, trees, wetlands, etc. while ensuring trails and open space design.

Save Mount Diablo supports Measure L because it preserves three times as much really important Ginochio family as the lower value area it builds upon, a huge net conservation gain.

This Ginochio land is only available as part of Measure L. Measure L protects three square miles of the Marsh Creek watershed. Measure L continues our work in permanently strengthening the Urban Limit Line with a “Green Wall” of parks.

You may agree or disagree with us, but we got here through decades of work to protect more than 50,000 acres of parks along the edge of Brentwood. Decades of work to build relationships with the Ginochio family, Blackhawk, and the Nunn family so that they would support such a positive conservation plan.

Brentwood voters get to decide because Save Mount Diablo helped enact voter approval for changes to Urban Limit Lines so that developers would need to convince us and you that their project is good for the community.