Oakland to Piedmont: Addendum to Blair Park EIR is Not Enough

An addendum to the Blair Park final environmental impact review (EIR) "not only fails to remedy the deficiencies in this EIR, but also ignores meaningful review of new and significant Project changes and environmental impacts," says Oakland's environmental review officer.

"You have an opportunity now to address the document;s deficiencies and to prepare and circulate a subsequent or supplemental EIR that fulfills CEQA's requirements," says the letter from Eric Angstadt, deputy director of of Oakland's Community and Economic Development Agency, Eric Angstadt, to the Piedmont City Council. (CEQA stands for California Environemental QualityAct. See the PDF above for the entire letter.)

Piedmont council members approved the addendum early Tuesday morning, one of several votes that in effect give the go-ahead to a controversial plan to build privately funded sports fields in Blair Park.

They also approved a "statement of overriding considerations," another item that lets the project move ahead without preparation of a new or supplemental EIR.

Angstadt's letter was not included in the material available to council members at their Dec. 5-6 meeting.

Although dated Dec. 5, 2011, a hard copy of the letter was mailed to Piedmont City Hall, to the attention of City Clerk John Tulloch, on Dec. 1, according to Angstadt's office.

Tulloch said today that he has not yet received the original letter. At Tulloch's request, Angstadt emailed a copy to Tulloch this afternoon.

A report from Piedmont's recreation director, Mark Delventhal, that was presented to the council Dec. 5 says:

"LSA [LSA Associates, Inc., environmental consultants] analyzed the potential effects of the Project modifications and concluded that an addendum is the appropriate documentation for the revised Project, in accordance with Sections 15162 of the CEQA Guidelines. The revisions to the Project do not constitute substantial changes that would require major revisions to the FEIR due to the introduction of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects."

You may read more about the and more about the the project on our Blair Park page.