Small Band Fights Big Development

By Amy Sylvestri

A group of San Leandro residents who don’t support the construction of hundreds of new housing units as part of the Transit- Oriented Development (TOD) has banded together to fight the project.

Estudillo Estates resident Frank Lynn started a group called “Save San Leandro” to protest the San Leandro Crossings project that is part of the TOD plan. They say city officials don’t listen to the public’s opinion.

On Tuesday night, the group met following an Estudillo Estates Homeowner’s Association meeting at the Main Library. Most of the people at the homeowner’s meeting stuck around.

San Leandro Crossings is a 800 to 1,000-unit apartment project that the City Council approved to be built near the San Leandro BART station by Westlake Development and managed by Bridge Housing. The project could blossom into 3,000 apartments over the next 20 years, according to city documents.

Save San Leandro says that throughout the approval process, the public has been mislead as to the nature of the project, that the “housing units” are actually apartments to rent, not condos to buy, that the low-income housing factor was not properly disclosed, and that the public hasn’t been properly consulted about the project in general.

The group said that a series of informational meetings about the project have been one-sided and that supporters have been “bused in” to make it look like more San Leandro residents support the project.

“Basically, you have low-income housing advocates gather people up to tell emotional anecdotes, and then you have homeowners and taxpayers that Lynn. “People have major concerns about this project and at these meetings, frankly, the developers have been dismissive.” Feeling ignored by the city, Lynn and his group have decided to take action.

“At first, I worked at this as a protest, but now it has become a public education campaign,” said Lynn. “Ideally, we are hoping that enough people get in contact with Bridge Housing and their local government, that they understand we won’t tolerate this.”

Lynn added that one of the things that he is most upset about it is an invitation-only meeting that took place on Sept. 10. The meeting was open to a limited amount of “stakeholders,” and not the public at large.

Several members of the group said that the closed-door meeting made them feel that they were being purposely excluded.

“I felt we weren’t represented,” said Joann Dictor, who attended the meeting using an invitation that was originally given to a friend.

“Apparently, they don’t think homeowners and taxpayers are stakeholders,” said Lynn. “They don’t understand representative democracy.”

The group stressed that they aren’t against low-income housing, they just feel that this particular project is ill-conceived, citing for example a parking plan that averages just over one parking space per unit, regardless of how many bedrooms the apartment has.

“Oh don’t worry, everyone is going to ride their bike, so it won’t be a problem,” said one man, drawing laughs from the rest of the group.

At the Sept. 22 City Council meeting, Bridge Housing is scheduled to speak to the council and several Save San Leandro members plan to be there to speak also.

“We need to let council members know that we are displeased, we know the truth, and we’re not going to put up with this,” said Lynn.

The group’s web site is www.sanleandrocrossings.com.