County Board Denies Save Mount Diablo Appeal

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors has denied an appeal by Save Mount Diablo to block a 10-acre development off North Gate Road, near the entrance to the Mount Diablo State Park. 

SMD filed an appeal after the county’s planning commission recommended the approval of a seven-lot subdivision, plus a lot for the applicant’s home and smaller secondary home, to the county board.

In the appeal, sent to the board on Sept. 22, Seth Adams, director of Land Programs for SMD, outlined the organization’s reasons for challenging the planning commission’s approval. 

The outline included eight "grounds for appeal." One of which was “the project fails to adequately buffer wildlife habitat and neighboring public open space. It has potential impacts on sensitive species and habitats.”

Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, who represents the unincorporated area, said that she voted to deny the appeal based on the testimony from the hearing and reviewing the site in person. Mitchoff felt that the plan “as requested by Save Mount Diablo created a bigger problem” than the original proposal. 

The supervisors denied the appeal by a 4-0 vote (Supervisor Mary Piepho was not present at the meeting).

Adams argued that the board’s decision “gave up any opportunity to make this a better project and it is going to impact open space literally one parcel away from the entrance to Mount Diablo State Park ... Plenty of people paid lip service to being interested in preserving Mount Diablo but their actions spoke otherwise.”

The planning commission originally had a hearing for the proposed site on Aug. 9. The commissioners continued the agenda item until Sept. 13, to allow the applicant to propose an additional project plan and address the concerns of SMD.

After hearing the alternative project proposal on Sept. 13, which included changes from the applicant’s engineer, the planning commission voted 5-1 in favor of the original plan.