Month: October 2015

Petition Signatures Delivered

petition
After a 24 day collection period, Save Lafayette’s petition drive has delivered the signatures of 2300 Lafayette voters to the City clerk and the signature collection period has closed. This represents well over the 10% of Lafayette’s registered voters that we required; the petition to bring the “Homes at Deer Hill” resolution to a referendum leaves little doubt as to what voters want: slower growth, less development, more open space, less traffic and to be have their wishes heeded by the City. The petition, once validated by the County and City, will provide the City the opportunity to either rescind their prior approval of the project or to provide the community with the opportunity to vote on this huge project. 

As residents are all too aware, Lafayette has experienced rapid growth in recent years, by a factor of six over historical rates. The overcrowded schools, the BART parking lots filling earlier and earlier, the congested shopping areas and long traffic delays drastically reduce the city’s semi-rural character and run counter to what folks love about living here.

Save Lafayette’s near-term goal is to give the community a voice in the process and to achieve a better use of the “Homes at Deer Hill” site consistent with the City’s General Plan, Hillside Ordinance and community identity. But our fight won’t end there. Lafayette’s growth needs to be kept aligned with its transportation capacity, school capacity and not to the detriment of its hillsides and vistas. This initial effort was sucessful and we are very grateful to our donors and to all of the petition gatherers and signers for volunteering their time. However our continuing legal costs need your support, please click the “Donate” button on our site so we can continue to give voice to the wishes of Lafayette’s citizens.

The Save Lafayette Petition Is Almost There!

The response from the community in the prior week has been amazing! Save Lafayette volunteers fanned out across town and have collected an extraordinary number of signatures. Through hundreds of conversations, we’ve heard the community’s frustration with Lafayette’s recent rapid growth. While we have enjoyed the new dining and shopping options that have come to Lafayette, citizens are in wide agreement that the overall growth has strained the capacity of our town. What we heard from Lafayette’s citizens just reinforced why we need to make sure we get everyone’s signatures:

  • The schools are brimming over, students are being sent to campuses far from their neighborhoods. Lafayette is a city connected mostly by two lane roads. Round trips across town that are 20-30 minutes in times of low traffic are almost an hour at school start and dismissal times.
  • The topology of Lafayette, its hills and valleys, shape its streets like streams and rivers that are overflowing their banks. Vehicles are backed up on the two lane tributaries and severely delayed on the boulevards. The flow of people and their vehicles through Lafayette are already overwhelming critical intersections such as the one at Deer Hill Road and Pleasant Hill Road.
  • The BART parking lots fill early in the morning, the mall parking lots are full in the afternoons, they fill again on the weekends, parking outside of the malls is limited by the restricted and metered options with few alternatives.

Save Lafayette is committed to growth that is managed, no matter where it is in town, and accounts for the capacity of its infrastructure to support it. But the urgency around the “Homes at Deer Hill” resolution is that the City Council’s vote started the clock on the citizens’ opportunity to act. The groundswell of support has been fantastic and our goal of getting 10% of Lafayette’s voters to sign our petition is within our sites. But we still need your support! If you haven’t yet, please find us where we’ll be hosting petitions to have your signature count!

Tue, Oct 6

6:30am – 8:00am Lafayette BART
10:00am – 12:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes
4:00pm – 6:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes

Wed, Oct 7

9:00am – 11:00am Diablo Foods
10:00am – 12:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes
4:00pm – 6:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes

Thu, Oct 8

6:30am – 8:00am Lafayette BART
10:00am – 12:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes
4:00pm – 6:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes

Fri, Oct 9

10:00am – 12:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes
4:00pm – 6:00pm Lafayette Trader Joes

and more events coming soon!