Save Niles Canyon

The city of Fremont is organizing a ‘Niles Canyon Road Truck Restriction Project Stakeholders” Meeting.
It is TODAY and it is about prohibiting or restricting trucks on Niles Canyon Road.

January 18, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Niles Elementary School – Mutipurpose Room
37141 2nd Street
Fremont, CA

Contact: 510-494-4746
Email: Kunle Odumade  kodumade@fremont.gov

http://www.fremont.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=978

http://www.fremont.gov/index.aspx?NID=1487

FIRST PHASE OF CANYON ROAD WIDENING PROJECT IS STOPPED

ALAMEDA CREEK ALLIANCE STOPS FIRST PHASE OF NILES CANYON ROAD WIDENING PROJECT
Lawsuit Settlement Invalidates CalTrans Project Approval and Permit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 12, 2011
CONTACT: Jeff Miller, Alameda Creek Alliance, (415) 699-7357, (510) 499-9185

Oakland, CA – The California Department of Transportation signed a settlement agreement today with the Alameda Creek Alliance that forces the agency to terminate the approval and permits for the first phase of a controversial $80 million highway widening project in Niles Canyon along Alameda Creek. CalTrans will rescind its 2006 approval and flawed environmental review for the Route 84 Safety Improvement Project, notify regulatory agencies it is withdrawing the project, terminate the project construction contract, and comply with mitigation requirements for work already done, such as tree cutting along Alameda Creek.

“This is a victory both for protecting Alameda Creek and forcing transparency in public agency decisions,� said Jeff Miller, director of the Alameda Creek Alliance. “CalTrans must mitigate for damaged trees along Alameda Creek and cannot pursue a highway project in lower Niles Canyon without adequate environmental review and full public participation. If CalTrans comes back with a revised project, we strongly suggest it not involve significant highway widening or unnecessary damage to trout habitat.�

“Unfortunately, CalTrans is still pursuing another larger and even more ecologically damaging highway widening project in the middle of Niles Canyon, so streamside trees and wildlife habitat along Alameda Creek in the canyon are not safe yet,� said Miller. “We are monitoring any project approval for phase two, since the environmental review for that project was also severely flawed.�

CalTrans cut nearly 100 trees in the canyon this spring and intended to resume the environmentally damaging project in June. The Alameda Creek Alliance filed suit challenging the inadequate environmental review for the project, winning a court order halting plans to remove tree stumps and vegetation, grade and fill the creek channel and floodplain, and build huge creekside retaining walls. Alameda Superior Court judge Frank Roesch issued a preliminary injunction in June barring CalTrans from continuing construction and excoriated the agency’s clandestine project approval and obstruction of the public process. Judge Roesch is expected to sign the settlement agreement and retain jurisdiction to enforce the settlement. San Francisco attorneys Brian Gaffney, Kelly Franger and Erin Ganahl represented the Alameda Creek Alliance.

“CalTrans’ Niles Canyon projects would waste $80 million in taxpayer funds and undermine a decade-long effort by dozens of land and water management agencies to restore Alameda Creek,� said Miller. “CalTrans’ one-size-fits-all approach disregards the scenic beauty and wildlife habitat in the canyon and devalues the communities of Niles and Sunol. We all want a safer roadway, but CalTrans must consider less ecologically damaging alternatives. Highway widening may make the road more dangerous for drivers and cyclists.�

If CalTrans pursues a future project between Rosewarnes and Farwell underpasses in lower Niles Canyon, it cannot rely on the discredited 2006 project approval, but must initiate a new environmental review process with proper public notice, consider public comments, and apply for new state and federal permits.

Background
The three phases of the project would widen much of Niles Canyon Road between Fremont and Interstate 680 to provide 12-foot lanes, a 2-foot median, and up to 8-foot shoulders. In total, CalTrans proposes cutting 600 trees along Alameda Creek and filling the creek and floodplain with over four miles of cement retaining walls and rip-rap. This would significantly damage steelhead trout habitat and remove rare sycamore forest.

CalTrans internally “approved� phase one in 2006 without issuing a notice of determination or otherwise alerting the public that the project had been finalized. CalTrans hid project approval from permitting agencies and the Alameda Creek Alliance, which raised concerns about impacts to steelhead trout and other protected wildlife. CalTrans filed a “Negative Declaration,� claiming no significant environmental impacts, rather than preparing the required Environmental Impact Report for a project with significant impacts.

Phase two would cut nearly 500 more trees in the middle of the canyon and add almost two miles of retaining walls and armoring along the creek. CalTrans began environmental review for phase two in 2010, but reopened the public comment period after a storm of opposition and protest from the community. CalTrans has refused to consider any substantive changes to phase two. Construction on the second phase was scheduled for 2012, but the lawsuit over phase one and public opposition will likely delay the project.

The City of Fremont sent a letter to Governor Brown requesting he intervene to stop the project, citing “extreme� and “shocking� environmental impacts and “blatant disregard for getting input from the public.� Fremont is investigating a ban on large trucks in the canyon, since trucks cause a disproportionate number (38%) of traffic accidents and most fatal accidents. Fremont joined conservation and community groups in calling for a halt to the project and reevaluation of the need for road widening once a truck ban is in place. Hundreds of local residents opposed the project at public meetings and protested the tree cutting. Save Niles Canyon, Save Our Sunol, Friends of Coyote Hills, Southern Alameda County Sierra Club, East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and Tri-City Ecology Center are also opposing the project.

Save Niles Canyon reviewed safety data CalTrans used to justify road widening, premised on a purported high numbers of fatal accidents. CalTrans cited 13 fatalities over the past decade, but several incidents were outside the canyon or project area. The majority involved driving under the influence as a major or contributing cause of the accident, a factor unlikely to be prevented by road widening. Niles Canyon Road is statistically safer than the average state road. CalTrans’ project may actually make the canyon more dangerous for drivers and cyclists by increasing vehicle speeds. There are less destructive alternatives CalTrans has not evaluated such as flashing lights, radar speed signs, median barriers, rumble strips, focusing on localized problem areas, trimming selected trees, or other measures within the existing roadway.

Alameda Creek is an ‘anchor watershed’ considered regionally significant for restoration of threatened steelhead trout to the entire Bay Area. Since 1997, numerous organizations and agencies have cooperated on restoration projects to allow migratory fish from the Bay to reach spawning habitat in upper Alameda Creek. Thirteen fish passage improvement projects, including dam removals, construction of fish ladders, and installation of fish screens, have been completed in the watershed since 2001. Several more projects in the lower creek are expected to be completed by 2013-2105, allowing steelhead to migrate into Niles Canyon in the project area and further upstream into the upper watershed for the first time in half a century.

********************************************
Jeff Miller
Director
Alameda Creek Alliance
P.O. Box 2626
Niles, CA 94536-0626
(510) 499-9185
Fax (415) 436-9683
Web site www.alamedacreek.org

Protecting and restoring the natural ecosystems of the Alameda Creek watershed

Enjoy music, food, and good company while spreading awareness about Caltrans’ planned destruction in the canyon, and hearing the latest news. Bruce is bringing his barbecue, hot dogs and chicken wings, as well as signs you can grab and use to protest at the corner of Mission Boulevard and Niles Canyon. Feel free to bring your own goodies or signs to share.

Date: 2nd Saturday of the month
Time: 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. or later
Place: Corner of Mission and Niles Boulevard, Fremont, California (click here for Google directions)

History: We’ve been holding monthly protests since February 2011 when Caltrans started cutting down trees in the canyon. At first there were only a few of us, but as word has gotten out we regularly have 50 to over a 100 folk show up.

Why we are protesting:
A) We want Caltrans to consider alternate safety improvements that won’t result in:

1. Hundreds of trees being cut down. 100 native trees have already been cut down for phase I; 450 more are scheduled to be cut down for phase II; and another 100 are scheduled to be cut down for phase III. These numbers do not include non-natives, including a grove of +100-year-old eucalyptus (known locally as “The Spot”) that was almost certainly planted by the original transcontinental railway, and subsequently recorded in many silent films.
2. Undermining over a decade’s-worth of effort (not to mention millions of dollars spent by public agencies) to restore riparian habitat to a point where Alameda Creek can once more sustain native steelhead trout.
3. Further endangering species that are already on the edge, such as “steelhead trout, California red-legged frog, California tiger salamander, Alameda whipsnake, and callippe silverspot butterfly“; and Fremont Cottonwood.
4. The Niles Canyon Railway (which is on the National Registry of Historic Places) permanently ceasing to operate. If Caltrans cuts into the train embankment and tries to support it with a retaining wall, the track will no longer meet federal safety regulations, and will have to stop running. The historic train attracts hundreds of visitors to downtown Niles and Sunol each weekend.
5. $76 million dollars being wasted, since alternate safety solutions that are more sensitive to local needs are also less expensive.
6. A less safe route, since the proposed solution will result in a route that is (a) faster; (b) floods more often — Caltrans is proposing to fill-in up to 20% of the creek in sections, and to lower the road under bridges; and (c) accommodates larger trucks — trucks are involved in 38% of all collisions, even though they only account for 2.5% of all traffic.
7. Additional runoff into Alameda Creek — which supplies 40% of Alameda County’s drinking water — particularly during flooding.
8. Miles of retaining wall that will undoubtedly attract graffiti, which Caltrans is only prepared to remove once every five years.
9. Undermining Niles Canyon’s historic nature as a destination in and of itself.

B) We want Caltrans to comply with CEQA and complete a single Environmental Impact Report for all three phases, and to not piecemeal them into separate projects.

C) Lastly, we are not convinced that the safety data supporting Caltrans’ plans is valid, since it:

1. includes fatalities that are outside the project area (including outside the canyon)
2. can’t be completely evidenced (since Caltrans purges its data after 10 years)
3. has varied in accordance with Caltrans’ agenda
4. does not agree with other agencies’ data
5. is purely quantifiable, not qualifiable. For example, there are popular Harley bars on either end of the canyon, and half of all fatalities involve DUI, and another half involve motorcycles (DUI checkpoints and an awareness campaign would be more effective).
6. Caltrans safety database (TASAS) is not public, unlike SWITRS.
7. In the Phase II DEIR, Caltrans itself admits that there are fewer collisions on Niles Canyon Road than on average comparable roads

Come and join us! Together we are strong enough to fight the destruction in Niles Canyon.

Come and join us to public meetings and hearings, check out our calendar to see what’s coming up

Tomorrow, Thursday, June 9, the Alameda Creek Alliance will apply for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction regarding the phase 1 Niles Canyon project.

The hearing will occur at 11:00 a.m. in Department 31 of the County of Alameda Superior Court, located at 201 – 13th Street, in Oakland. Department 31 is located on the second floor of the U.S. Post Office Building.

If anyone is interested in attending, it would help to have a showing of community interest.

Next Saturday (June 11, 2011) is our regularly scheduled Monthly Protest from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. (maybe later) at the corne r of Mission Boulevard and Niles Canyon Road. We’re still in the midst of coordinating whether or not we’ll have a sound system, power supply, musicians, etc; but please save the date. We’ll let you know whether or not the protest is on as soon as we nail down the logistics. At present, Phase I construction is scheduled to start next week (hopefully the lawsuit will result in a “stop work” injunction, but there are no guarantees).

See press release

View or download full presentation

Summary:

Historical Resources

• Niles Canyon Railway (NCRY) now runs vintage steam and diesel trains on the original transcontinental railroad bed
• The Essanay studio in Niles filmed in many locations throughout the canyon between 1912 and 1916
• California Brick Company
• Spring Valley Water Company was the first water company in the area
• Brightside and Farwell picnic areas were train stops in the canyon
• THE SPOT night club and meeting place
• Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza and his small expeditionary force crossed Alameda Creek at the mouth of the canyon on March 31, 1776.
• The mouth of the canyon was also the location of the first grist mill in the area and used water from Alameda Creek to turn the grinding stone.

Pictures

• Essanay Film Company posse riding through the canyon (1)
• Closing scene of The Tramp with Charlie Chaplin, 1915 (2)
• Outlaw’s Awakening with Broncho Billy Anderson, 1915 (3)
• Essanay stagecoach on Niles Canyon Road in Broncho Billy’s Squareness, 1915 (4)
• Broncho Billy’s Narrow Escape, 1912 (5)
• The Convict’s Threat, 1915 (6)
• The Claim Jumpers, 1915

Conclusions

• Entire length of Niles Canyon has historic resources
• Niles Canyon has been a destination for over 100 years
• The current HWY 84 project will severely adversely affect the ability of the Niles/Sunol corridor to be a destination area and have a negative effect on the local economies

For further information and lots of great photographs, see the following books

• Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company by David Kiehn, Farwell Books
• Niles, Fremont by Phil Holmes and Jill Singleton, Arcadia Press
• Niles Canyon Railway by Henry Luna, Arcadia Press

Sample letter to Alameda County Transportation Commission

Date                                 Download word file

Beth Walukas
Manager of Planning
Alameda County Transportation Commission
1333 Broadway, Suite 220
Oakland, CA 94612

Dear Ms. Walukas, RE: Remove Niles Canyon Rd Project from the Countywide
Transportation Plan (CWTP) – Transportation
Expenditure Plan (TEP) – List of Possible Projects

I am writing to your office concerning the ongoing CWTP-TEP process that has been posted on the Alameda County Transportation Commission’s (ACTC) webpage. It is my understanding that the CWTP-TEP process has as goals developing a list of projects to be included in a reauthorization of Measure B – Alameda County’s Transportation Expenditure Plan and/or recommending the project be adopted by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the Bay region.

In particular during a March 24, 2011 meeting of the ACTC Board the Agenda Package contained a March 15, 2011 memorandum from the ACTC Planning, Policy and Legislation Committee had an attachment (A1) which listed projects and programs which had been identified through the CWTP-TEP process. Under Projects identified as No. 82 and 101was a project titled Niles Canyon Rd (safety improvements) & SR-84/Niles (congestion relief/safety) respectively.

As a resident and voter in Alameda County I have been following the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) Project titled State Route 84 Niles Canyon Safety Improvements, a project I do not support. In my opinion the project will actually make the canyon more dangerous for drivers and cyclists, waste $76 million in public funds, degrade important trout habitat in Alameda Creek, jeopardize a decade of restoration efforts, blight a designated scenic highway and ruin the natural beauty of Niles Canyon. I support the Save Niles Canyon effort.

Since the projects listed in your CWTP-TEP planning documents appear to have the same name and purpose as that of Caltrans I am requesting that you remove the project from your list of possible candidates. If the Niles Canyon Rd Safety Improvement project were to be part of any Measure B reauthorization or other ACTC supported initiative you can be confident I will not be supporting it as a voter and I will advising my neighbors, friends and colleagues to do likewise.

Sincerely,

Protest 3/12/2011

Enjoy music, food, and good company while spreading awareness about Caltrans’ planned destruction in the canyon, and hearing the latest news. Bruce is bringing his barbecue, hot dogs and chicken wings, as well as signs you can grab and use to protest at the corner of Mission Boulevard and Niles Canyon. Feel free to bring your own goodies or signs to share.

History: We’ve been holding monthly protests since February 2011 when Caltrans started cutting down trees in the canyon. At first there were only a few of us, but as word has gotten out we regularly have 50 to over a 100 folk show up.

Why we are protesting:
A) We want Caltrans to consider alternate safety improvements that won’t result in:

1. Hundreds of trees being cut down. 100 native trees have already been cut down for phase I; 450 more are scheduled to be cut down for phase II; and another 100 are scheduled to be cut down for phase III. These numbers do not include non-natives, including a grove of +100-year-old eucalyptus (known locally as “The Spot”) that was almost certainly planted by the original transcontinental railway, and subsequently recorded in many silent films.
2. Undermining over a decade’s-worth of effort (not to mention millions of dollars spent by public agencies) to restore riparian habitat to a point where Alameda Creek can once more sustain native steelhead trout.
3. Further endangering species that are already on the edge, such as “steelhead trout, California red-legged frog, California tiger salamander, Alameda whipsnake, and callippe silverspot butterfly“; and Fremont Cottonwood.
4. The Niles Canyon Railway (which is on the National Registry of Historic Places) permanently ceasing to operate. If Caltrans cuts into the train embankment and tries to support it with a retaining wall, the track will no longer meet federal safety regulations, and will have to stop running. The historic train attracts hundreds of visitors to downtown Niles and Sunol each weekend.
5. $76 million dollars being wasted, since alternate safety solutions that are more sensitive to local needs are also less expensive.
6. A less safe route, since the proposed solution will result in a route that is (a) faster; (b) floods more often — Caltrans is proposing to fill-in up to 20% of the creek in sections, and to lower the road under bridges; and (c) accommodates larger trucks — trucks are involved in 38% of all collisions, even though they only account for 2.5% of all traffic.
7. Additional runoff into Alameda Creek — which supplies 40% of Alameda County’s drinking water — particularly during flooding.
8. Miles of retaining wall that will undoubtedly attract graffiti, which Caltrans is only prepared to remove once every five years.
9. Undermining Niles Canyon’s historic nature as a destination in and of itself.

B) We want Caltrans to comply with CEQA and complete a single Environmental Impact Report for all three phases, and to not piecemeal them into separate projects.

C) Lastly, we are not convinced that the safety data supporting Caltrans’ plans is valid, since it:

1. includes fatalities that are outside the project area (including outside the canyon)
2. can’t be completely evidenced (since Caltrans purges its data after 10 years)
3. has varied in accordance with Caltrans’ agenda
4. does not agree with other agencies’ data
5. is purely quantifiable, not qualifiable. For example, there are popular Harley bars on either end of the canyon, and half of all fatalities involve DUI, and another half involve motorcycles (DUI checkpoints and an awareness campaign would be more effective).
6. Caltrans safety database (TASAS) is not public, unlike SWITRS.
7. In the Phase II DEIR, Caltrans itself admits that there are fewer collisions on Niles Canyon Road than on average comparable roads

Come and join us! Together we are strong enough to fight the destruction in Niles Canyon.