David has beat Goliath!
Yes, that persistent, hard working and passionate group of Pinole citizens that banded together to stop the City from installing a Verizon cell tower in Pinole Valley Park appear to have dealt the final and most crushing blow to this proposed project and claimed Victory!
Armed with just their passion and dedication, this group of residents kept the pressure on the City as they fought for their park.
Their goal was to keep Pinole Valley Park for recreation use, not as a home for an 80 foot cell tower, and to ensure their park would be kept pristine for present and future generations to enjoy.
This battle has been waged at the grass-roots level. Grass-roots is defined as something that originates from the common people.
How appropriate that a grass-roots effort by common people has saved Pinole Valley Park's grass, trees, creek and everything surrounding it.
Find out what's happening in Pinole-Herculeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The saga of the Cell Tower has been told on this blog from the time that the community first became aware of the City's plans to move forward with the tower. I, personally, objected to the proposed location. But this fine group of citizens explored every possible method to derail this project and throw a monkey wrench into it. Monkey wrench delivered!
They won what appeared to be a major battle on June 16 when the Council rejected the lease by a vote of 4-1 with Swearingen dissenting.
But Verizon put the pressure on the City; on July 18 the Council reversed itself and voted to ratify the lease by a vote of 3-2, Green and Long dissenting.
Find out what's happening in Pinole-Herculeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
This group (Pinole Preservation Society) has no officially elected leader, but, the monkey wrench hit its mark when Sal Spataro, with the help and assistance of others researched the Grant Deed used to purchase the park land.
Bull's Eye!
Taking the proverbial bull by the horns Sal Spataro set out to contact someone at the State Park and Recreation department about the grant terms and conditions. He struck gold when he made contact with Cristelle Taillon Cristelle Taillon, Project Officer Outreach/Special projects Grants and Local Services.
Ms. Taillon researched the Grant used to purchase Pinole Valley Park and discovered that the City was indeed out of compliance. Pinole Valley Park could not be used for commercial purposes and further that the City had improperly converted park land when they built Station 74.
It now appears certain that the City of Pinole will not be able to erect the tower and may be facing a difficult dilemma as it attempts to correct improper and incorrect actions taken by previous and present administrations.
This discovery raises serious questions about what has occurred over the last 40+ years with regards to this park land and how administration failed to realize that they were bound by grant deed restrictions.
What is unclear is how the City will deal with these issues.
Will Verizon select a new location in Pinole?
Will Verizon attempt to recover the monies it has spent to date for the proposed tower?
Will the city be embroiled in another legal action?
Will the City dismantle Station 74?
Will the City attempt to use the facility for recreation purposes?
Will the City need to review and revise its General Plan? The new General Plan apparently never uncovered the deed restrictions. How costly will that be?
It seems, at first blush, doubtful, that the City will elect to go through the lengthy and costly conversion process.
Every scenario points to new expenses at a time when the City is seeking ways to save money. The projected annual revenue from Verizon, $26,000 a year, pales in comparison what the City may end up paying to unravel this mess. The City has a projected reserve of 38%, will the City have to dip into the reserve to offset these costs?There remain many questions to be answered.
After months of research, meetings, communications, walking and talking to the community and challenging the City and Verizon, the PSP can claim victory. It is really a proud moment for the citizens of Pinole who took on City Hall, Verizon, all the legal pundits and everyone who thought this was a lost cause.
Kudos to all of you. I am honored to have played a very small part in this victory.
Matt Bielby: Comment
From your perspective what has been the biggest disappointment, lie, or flawed procedure during this entire process?
How do you sum up your feelings about our city?
"I am not quite as upset now as I was a few weeks ago, because I am optimistic that these grant conditions are going to keep this pole out of our park. With that said this whole process has been frustrating and infuriating. The thing that has upset me the most though, is to have one of the City Council members (who flip flopped, Pete Murray) turn around and on 3 separate occasions blame his constituents (the ones at the meetings) for not being more involved in the process earlier. Especially in light of of the fact that he now admits to having given the City Manager authorization to sign a lease, a binding contract months before any notices or public hearing were even held. Having been witness to the whole notification process (being one if the citizens within the 500 ft. notification area) I can accurately say that this process was done on the most minimal level possible, and in retrospect appears to have been a blatant attempt by staff to ram this thing through without anyone noticing."
The community wins!
The community wins!
Ivette Ricco, Life as I Know it
