City of Pittsburg: Pittsburg making new push on James Donlon extension

Pittsburg making new push on James Donlon extension

Posted Date: 9/26/2011

By Rick Radin
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 09/23/2011 12:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 09/24/2011 05:50:59 PM PDT


After years of delays and clashes with regional transportation leaders, Pittsburg is looking to speed ahead with building a long-awaited road to alleviate traffic bottlenecks. However, the barriers to completing the project may be as steep as the terrain through which it would run.

The City Council recently committed $685,000 out of the $1.5 million in its newly created road-building fund to an environmental impact report for the James Donlon Boulevard Extension, a road it has coveted for years, according to City Manager Joe Sbranti.

The total cost of the road is estimated at $47.5 million, according to Paul Reinders, Pittsburg's chief civil engineer on the project.

The thoroughfare would connect Somersville Road in Antioch with Kirker Pass Road south of Pittsburg and relieve extensive congestion on Buchanan Road during the morning and afternoon commutes, Sbranti said.

"I've been working on this project for 20 years," he said. "It's astounding that it has taken so long to build a little 2-mile section of road."

The wait is far from over. After assessing the environmental challenges and figuring out how to pay for the project, Pittsburg must acquire the land from an owner who doesn't want to sell and work with the Contra Costa Local Agency Formation Commission to annex it into the city.

Further clouding the picture is a lawsuit by the East Contra Costa Regional Fee and Financing Authority, which Pittsburg abandoned last year because of a dispute over funding for the project. The fee-collection agency is trying to force Pittsburg to rejoin it.

The 471-acre parcel through which most of the extension would run is owned by Tina Thomas, widow of Wayne Thomas, a member of a pioneering Contra Costa County family who died in 2007.

Thomas operates a cattle ranch on the property and has for years been warily watching the city's moves, including an earlier environmental impact report.

"The road would basically bisect my property," she said. "I'm sure you can imagine my feelings about it are negative, to say the least."

Thomas doesn't know whether she could continue ranching on the property if the city acquired the right of way through eminent domain, but she said she's seen the effect of development along the western edge of her property, which borders Kirker Pass Road.

"The first EIR found that if the road went in, it would lead to fires, hazardous waste spills, litter, noise and the need for additional fencing and drainage," Thomas said. "That road would completely devastate this property."

Pittsburg must annex the land between the road and its city limit from the county because the project has never been a part of the county's general plan, Reinders said.

Annexation would require approval of the local formation agency, which reviewed an earlier environmental report for the project in 2007.

Pittsburg would need to purchase 16.8 acres of Thomas' land for the right of way and gain 52.8 acres of easement for the slopes bordering the road, Reinders said.

Seth Adams, of Save Mount Diablo, the environmental group dedicated to preserving the East Bay hills, thinks the project "relocates bottlenecks while inducing growth."

The main barrier to its completion will probably be cost, given the terrain involved, he added.

The road won't be a straight line but will wind through the hills with changes in elevation.

"There will be huge cuts and fills involved and a much larger grading footprint than has been suggested in the past," Adams said.

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