For Immediate Release
Date: Friday, February 29, 2008
Contacts: City of San Ramon:
Marc Fontes, Economic Development Director, 925 973-2578
Sunset Development
Company: Alex Mehran, President and CEO, 925
866-0100
San Ramon for Open Government: Jim Gibbon
925 786-8280
JOINT PRESS RELEASE
Parties Jointly Announce Settlement of
SROG’s Lawsuit Against the City of San Ramon, Challenging the City’s Approval
of the San Ramon City Center Project
The City of San Ramon, Sunset Development Company, and San Ramon
for Open Government (“SROG”) jointly announced the settlement of SROG’s lawsuit
against the City, challenging its approval of the San Ramon City Center Project
and the accompanying Environmental Impact Report. The City Center Project,
which was unanimously approved by the City Council in December, will feature a
new City Hall, library, transit center and police headquarters, along with
residential living, office space, retail, and entertainment components. The
settlement agreement will also result in SROG dropping two referendum petitions
it has been circulating to challenge development agreement amendments for the
Project.
SROG had sued the City alleging that the approval violated the
California Environmental Quality Act and the City’s 2020 General Plan.The settlement calls for Sunset and the City
to make a number of changes to the project, including: reducing the heights of
the project’s tallest buildings to no more than ninety feet (resulting in
reducing the office buildings from seven to six stories), reducing the
condominium buildings adjoining the Iron Horse Trail to a maximum of seven stories, and taking several steps to reduce
the project’s traffic and air quality impacts.
The
project changes also include reducing the project’s total office space and
associated parking by almost fifteen percent, expanding the three-year trial
free shuttle program to cover both the City Center and the rest of Bishop
Ranch, scheduling express shuttle buses to and from BART for both AM and PM
commute hours. In addition, the City and Sunset will support a
pedestrian/bicycle-accessible flyover crossing busy
The
settlement also requires all
Along
with the project changes, the settlement commits the City to moving forward
with enacting a local ordinance requiring that any future buildings outside of
SROG
spokesperson Jim Gibbon stated, “We were concerned that this project, while
desirable in some respects, was going to overload city streets, block out
regional views, and set a bad precedent for the future. While the changes that
Sunset and the City have agreed to, do not fully address all
the issues that prompted the lawsuit and the referendum petitions, we
think that the changes do make it a much
better project.”
Sunset’s
President, Alex Mehran, is pleased that the project will move forward on
schedule. “We have always felt we have proposed a project that the citizens of
San Ramon want to see happen.We’re
pleased that this settlement will allow the project to move forward on schedule
and San Ramon will realize its longstanding goal of having a downtown.”
San
Ramon Mayor H. Abram Wilson echoed the City’s satisfaction with the settlement.
“We think this settlement is a win for everyone concerned, especially the
people of San Ramon, who will get the
# # #