Rossmoor Rebels Plan Big Rally Wednesday

Save Our Stanley is making plans for the biggest protest in Rossmoor's history on Wednesday as the fight escalates against plans for a new event center.

The rally begins at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the corner of Golden Rain Road and Tice Creek Drive, inside the Rossmoor gates, near the Fireside Room. SOS will have signs prepared for marchers in sympathy with more than 3,300 people who have signed a petition opposing the event center plans for reasons of traffic, safety and the environment, said Phil Wesler of SOS. The plans call for a Dixieland band, food and guest speakers.

Wesler was one of a half-dozen Rossmoor residents who spoke March 6 at the Walnut Creek City Council opposing the event center. "It's never too late to make a difference," Rossmoor resident Bob Dickson told the council.

The city has received the permit plans for the project line in line with the 2009 approval by the Walnut Creek Planning Commission, said Sandra Meyer, the city's community development director. The city's review is now "ministerial," said Meyer, "a check-the-box analysis."

What is developing is a "civil war" in the 9,000-resident retirement community, wrote Contra Costa Times columnist Tom Barnidge in a Sunday column.