Voluntary moratorium on Todd Rd. dump trucks
By Dan Stebbins Executive Editor
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
The fur was flying last night at the Novato City Council meeting.For a good portion of the five-hour meeting it was a verbal assault by those angered and outraged against those defensive and perplexed.
It was a fair fight. No one bit off anyone else's ear. And after everyone ran out of things to complain about or causes to champion, the evening ended rather unexpectedly in sort of a fuzzy group hug.
The topic was Todd Road, a rather innocent-looking stretch of asphalt that snakes along the outside perimeter of the Newport subdivision at Hamilton.
The road, running a mere 15 feet behind many of the new stucco homes, is the haul road for several major construction projects at the former Army Air Base.
Large trucks rumble down the road in both directions from early in the morning until late afternoon. They rattle backyard windows and belch toxic diesel fumes as they make their way to the Hamilton Wetlands Project or the dikes that the city maintains along San Pablo Bay to allow Hamilton residents to walk around in shoes rather than waders.
About 60 Hamilton residents, men and women, old and young, most carrying “CLOSE TODD ROAD” signs, packed the council chambers in the school district board room Tuesday.
The city had invited representatives from agencies involved in Hamilton construction projects to explain why Todd Road was vital to their projects. And Hamilton residents were invited to explain to the council why they considered their desire to breathe without help from an inhaler more important than habitat for birds and fish.
To be fair, most of the Hamilton residents said they really liked the wetlands restoration project, but they felt the City of Novato, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Coastal Conservancy and others have been unconscionable in their disregard for the health of those living along Todd Road.
Any closure of Todd Road is seen as potentially fatal to the 2,000-acre Wetlands project, which is wed to a tight timetable with the Port of Oakland for dredged material to cover the old Hamilton runways. Councilmember Jim Leland, a quiet, pensive civic leader, assumed a leadership role last night as he craftily maneuvered the various factions into working together to solve the admittedly difficult Todd Road issue. “They decided to sit and work things out rather than throw rocks at each other,” Leland said, flashing one of the few smiles seen last night.So Leland, backed by the rest of the council, fashioned a rather open-ended resolution calling on Hamilton residents, state and federal agencies, environmentalists and unnamed other interested parties to meet together over the next four weeks to find an alternative route for the trucks or some other solution.
At the same time, the resolution calls for all parties using Todd road for heavy-construction hauling to voluntarily stop using the road over the next month.
The ad hoc group is being asked to report back to the council with its findings on August 8.
Leland is optimistic. “I've seen magic happen from interest-based negotiation,” he said.
Mayor Carole Dillon Knutson said last night she would ask City Manager Dan Keen to set up the meetings to seek a solution, letting the Army Corp of Engineers serve as the lead agency. Dillon-Knutson said the solution must also include the means to pay for it.
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