OPEN MARTINEZ - Preserve. Promote. Enhance. Unite.

This afternoon I hiked with about 20 others to the top of Mt. Wanda to look at the beautiful land to the south of the Muir National Landmark. The land where the proposed Alhambra Highlands development is situated is such a wonderful piece of the earth. From the top of Mt. Wanda you can see Sky Ranch, Briones, Mt. Diablo and other open spaces. The Alhambra Highlands cry out to be part of the continuum of undeveloped land that our community needs to preserve. Join all of us in working to make this happen. Check out the Alhambra Hill Open Space Committee on Facebook and send an email to ahosc.att.net if you would like more info.

Mark Thomson

We are on the move.

On last Tuesday about 40 of the Alhambra Hills Open Space Committee members met at 7PM at the Planning Commission meeting to introduce ourselves to the Commission. Jane Moore read a simple statement of our goal---to support the purchase of the Alhambra Hills and Alhambra Highlands as open space---and our plans.

This mirrored our introduction to the City Council at their meeting the previous Wednesday.

It is less than two weeks since our formation, and our number of supporters has almost tripled.

A VERY SERIOUS MISTAKE APPEARED ON THURSDAY IN THE MARTINEZ GAZETTE in the article “Commission gives Highlands the green light”. The article stated “…the Alhambra Hills Open Space Committee, is expected to appeal the decision to the City Council.” THIS STATEMENT IS TOTALLY INCORRECT.

Meeting is at USW Local 5 Meeting Hall, 1333 Pine Street. Between La Primavera restaurant and Connie's restaurant. At the bottom of Pine St. where it runs into Pacheco Blvd.

A notice of our meeting should appear in the Gazette Sunday edition.

The primary purpose of this first meeting is to get us organized so we can start making a difference.

We will briefly discuss the project and its current status, and the upcoming Planning Commission meeting. But our major effort is going to be to set up a structure and committees and task lists, so we can get to work on the issue of getting the property purchased as open space.

A tentative and utilitarian name is Alhambra Highlands Open Space Committee (AHOSC).

We’re going to try. We need your help. We are forming an organization to pursue purchasing the land as open space/park land.

E-mail us back, if you can help. Or if you want to be kept informed. E-mail us your name and phone too, so we can get in touch with you quickly.

We plan to meet soon, hopefully 4PM this Sunday, to get organized and up to speed before the next Planning Commission meeting on April 12, 2011.

HELP SAVE OUR COMMUNITY FROM

• CUTTING DOWN 450 NATIVE OAKS
• LANDSLIDES LIKE ON DEGNAN—AND DON’T FORGET THE VERY BIG SLIDE THAT HAPPENED AS SOON AS THE GLENVIEW/WILDCROFT HOUSES WERE PUT IT.
• BIG HOUSES BUILT ON THE RIDGELINES
• MAJOR ACCESS ROAD ON WILDCROFT
• HUGE RETAINING WALL FOR THE WILDCROFT EXTENSION
• HORIZON DRIVE USED AS CONSTRUCTION ROAD
• ENDANGERED SPECIES NEXT TO DEVELOPMENT

PLEASE LEND A HAND. WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW. E-MAIL US TODAY. AND SEND THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS.

Thank you.

Bill Schilitz Gay Gerlack Kay Cox Tim Platt
Hulet Hornbeck Dylan Radke Sherida Bush
Paul Craig Pat Corr Harlan Strickland
Kathi McLaughlin Jean O'Neil

Dear Editor,

Governor Brown is right to stop Redevelopment Agencies (RDA) from diverting local property taxes. The huge bite RDAs take out of local property taxes ($5.7 billion statewide in 2009) is wrong.

RDAs get their money from taking our LOCAL property taxes and diverting them from critical city and county services---- fire departments, schools, community colleges, community hospitals, BART, EPRPD parks, etc.

Here's a link to contact information for your governmental officials - from county to federal. Please let them know how you feel - particularly about redevelopment. Click here

Our city council has signed a letter that Martinez is FOR a Redevelopment Agency, hoping to stop the disbanding of RDA's. Citizens AGAINST a Redevelopment Agency for Martinez have a letter at White Rabbit Boutique, 529 Main Street until Wednesday, February 9. supporting the governor's stand against RDA's. Please stop in and sign your name and let's get our message to the governor. NO Redevelopment Agency!

Jerry Brown is expected to propose eliminating redevelopment agencies and use the money that has been diverted to offset state budget costs for one year and then give the money to counties and schools thereafter. Martinez City Council members, who are in the midst of trying to create an RDA, are not happy about this proposal. Here at OPEN Martinez, Governor Brown's proposal is a validation that redevelopment is a plan that won't work in Martinez. For a good overview of the story from a local perspective, click here to see the Martinez Patch article and the comments from local residents.

There's a great new site that focuses on Martinez news and happenings. Check out http://martinez.patch.com.

There's a lot of good stuff on the site, but the articles on Rob Schroder marching onward with redevelopment and the Alhambra Highlands should be right up the alley of readers of this site.

From a letter to the editor in the Martinez News Gazette from Bill Mechling

After reading the article by Greta Mart, titled ‘RDA funds: Where is the money going?’ I followed it up by going to the website listed at the end of the article. www3.senate.ca.gov/portal/site/senoversight under the ‘Reports’ tab. The Executive Summary of the report “Where Does the Affordable Housing Money Go?” lists seven ‘findings’ that have the lead words of: No assurance, Lax records, Loose law, Messy data, Questionable spending, Unreliable audits and Code enforcement. They also list recommendations for stronger oversight of RDAs. Until those are implemented, Martinez voters need to elect candidates who oppose the creation of an RDA. While at that website, please click on the report: “Redevelopment Fund Estimates Create Billion-Dollar Confusion for Policymakers”. The ‘Table of Contents ‘ page is a real eyebrow raiser all by its self, but the complete report needs to be read to see just what RDAs are really about.