Livermore Voters Will Likely Decide on BART Extension

Downtown or Interstate 580?

That's the question Livermore voters likely will get to answer in November after a to keep a Livermore BART station on the freeway has been validated and certified by the county registrar of voters.

The petition submitted by the Keep BART on 580 group contained 8,345 unverified signatures. It needed to be signed by 4,633 qualified voters.

A random sampling found 456 valid signatures from Livermore voters, more than enough needed in such a survey to verify the initiative, according to Dave MacDonald, Alameda County registrar of voters.

The matter is scheduled to appear before the City Council at its June 13 meeting.

The council will have three options:

• Put the measure on the ballot right away;
• Adopt it; or
• Request a report (fiscal impact, effect on land use, etc.).

Valerie Raymond, a member of Keep BART on 580, previously told Livermore Patch the ballot measure would change the city's general plan and prohibit the council from cooperating with BART directors on any plan to bring the transit agency's tracks to downtown Livermore.

Members say their goal is to have Livermore's BART station built on the I-580 corridor, much like the Pleasanton and Dublin stations.

In addition, they say the downtown plan's $4 billion price tag is too high and that it will increase traffic and noise in the area.

Vice Mayor John Marchand on Wednesday told Livermore Patch the petition drive was built on false information.

"Unfortunately, there has been a lot of misinformation out there," he said. "A lot of people who signed onto the initiative don’t realize there are requirements by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission."

The commission would require the city to build 6,400 homes outside of its urban growth boundary if the BART extension were to stay on the freeway, Marchand said.

Cheri Sheets, city engineer, said most of the residential units would have to be built along the Greenville Road area because Isabel Avenue is constrained with housing prohibited in the nearby airport protection zone.

The housing would somehow have to spill out of the urban growth boundary in order to have a reasonable density near Greenvill Road, Sheets said.

Any change to the urban growth boundary would have to go before voters, officials said.

In 2005, Livermore voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative to build 2,500 homes outside of the urban growth boundary. Nearly three-fourths of the voters that year voted against the initiative by Weyerhaeuser/Pardee Homes despite the petition receiving 10,000 signatures to place it on the ballot.

"For years Livermore voters have said that they do not want continued sprawl and greenfield development," Marchand said. "That’s why we have the urban growth boundary. We decided to grow with infill instead of the sprawl model."

The current plan is to build a BART extension from I-580 through the Airway-Portola region to downtown Livermore and perhaps continue it to Vasco Road.

Marchand said the downtown plan would work in meeting MTC requirements. A downtown specific plan already includes 3,000 units to be built, he said.

"We don't have to add anything to downtown because we'll already have those units in place," Marchand said. "All we have to add is 1,400 units to Vasco Road and then we're done."

Mayor Marshall Kamena at Monday's city council meeting announced a coalition of downtown BART supporters. That list so far includes the , Livermore Downtown Inc., Friends of Livermore, and the Livermore Cultural Arts Council.

Proponents of a downtown BART station say it will bring visitors and customers to downtown Livermore. They also say it will spur new development there.

Meanwhile, officials are discussing the possibility of building a BART extension up to Portola Avenue to get the ball rolling on the project while the community decides on its ultimate destination: downtown or I-580.

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