Fed up in Hamilton
Instead, their new neighbor turned out to be an access road used by trucks and heavy equipment on projects throughout the former Hamilton Air Force Base. "They showed us ballfields, a miniature golf course and parking spaces," said Chrissy Theran. "Now, the trucks start at 7 or 8 in the morning, sometimes 6:30. We estimate about 3,000 of them will go through this year. They haul hazardous soil out and take gravel and pipes in." The road in question, Todd Road, runs parallel to Newport Landing Drive and is separated from the back yards of the Therans and their neighbors by a six-foot masonry wall. It provides access to three ongoing projects by the Army Corps of Engineers - including the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project - and is also used by the North Marin Water District, the Novato Sanitary District, and other city and county agencies. The Therans like the Army projects, which are designed to clean up the former base and turn part of it into a wildlife habitat. But they're fed up with the noise, the dust and the worry that one of their neighbors' children might be injured on the road that runs behind their home. "I'm so sick with respiratory problems," said Christine Johnston, who is both a neighbor of the Therans and the real estate agent who sold them their house. "It's the same up and down the street, with people in and out of the emergency room. It's not coincidental." About 60 Hamilton residents brought their concerns to Monday's City Council meeting. They want the council to close the access road and force those who use it to find another route to the remote areas of the base - even if that means building another road to reach them. The council has scheduled a public hearing on the issue for July 11. It has hired a consultant to spend as much as $50,000 to find alternative routes to the Army projects. Meantime, Army representatives say they're doing everything they can to address those concerns. "We've heard some concerns from the neighborhood about safety, noise and dust," said Edward Kelley of the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure project. "We've taken it on ourselves to monitor our contractors on the project and the noise and dust they produce." Magan Harris, an air quality inspector for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said she investigated the situation on Todd Road and found no evidence of dust. In addition, Army representatives say the Hamilton residents may be overstating the problem. Residents are worried, for example, about an Army Corps of Engineers project that would use 10.6 million cubic yards of mud dredged from the Port of Oakland to create a 1,000-acre wetland on the site of a former airfield. The new wetland will become a habitat for many species, including the endangered clapper rail, long-billed curlew and salt marsh harvest mouse, said Maria Or, a public affairs spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District. The project will take 14 years to complete. But Or notes that most of the heavy construction work - the kind that requires large vehicles to travel on Todd Road - will be complete by 2007. After that, she said, Army engineers will use a pipeline to transport the Oakland mud from the bay to the project site. "This is a 10- to 15-year project," said Jeff Johnston, president of the Hamilton Homeowners Association and Christine Johnston's husband. "By the time it's complete, there could be different people in charge. There could be different people on the City Council. We don't want our concerns to be lost in a bureaucratic maze. We want them addressed immediately, and we want the situation changed immediately." The City Council has brought together aides to Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, state Sen. Carole Migden and Rep. Lynn Woolsey to sort through the various jurisdictions the road passes through and find a solution to the Hamilton residents' problems. "What we're saying to all of them is that a mistake was made," said Councilwoman Judy Arnold, who serves with Councilman Jim Leland on the ad-hoc committee. "The environmental impact report (prepared for the area's various projects) never mentions the fact that 18-wheel trucks would be going by, 20 feet from their homes, for the next 15 years." Chrissy Theran says she no longer cares who was responsible for putting her neighborhood into its present situation. She simply wants it to stop. "We're not asking questions. We're tired of questions," Theran said. "We have had two and a half years removed from our quality of life. We want this fixed immediately." But closing the road, even temporarily, could have "serious implications" for the Army projects, Or said. "Nobody wants trucks going through their back yard," said the Army Corps of Engineers representative. "But shutting down the road could jeopardize the project's timeline. Right now, we're depending on a supply of dredged material. If we lose that opportunity, it could mean we can't create a wetland." Even building a road could be problematic, Or said. "This is a wetlands project. You can't just plop down a road," she said. "You don't want the road to collapse under the weight of the trucks." MEETINGS The Novato City Council will hold a public hearing at its 7:30 p.m. meeting July 11 at the Novato Unified School District headquarters at 1015 Seventh St. The Army Corps of Engineers will hold a public meeting to discuss its wetlands project at 7 p.m. July 10 at the Marin Humane Society at 171 Bel Marin Keys Blvd. WHO'S USING TODD ROAD Agency: Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure Working with: San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, Department of Toxic Substances Control Project: Remove 5,000 cubic yards of contaminated dirt from former shooting range. Completed in June. Agency: Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District Working with: California Coastal Conservancy, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board Project: Use 10.6 million cubic yards of Oakland mud to turn 1,000 acres of former airfield into a wildlife habitat. Ongoing. Agency: Department of Defense Formerly Used Defense Site Project: Remove antenna, hazardous waste from air base site. Begins in 2008. Other users: City of Novato Mosquito Abatement District North Marin Water District Novato Sanitary District http://www.marinij.com/fastsearchresults/ci_3989275 Contact reporter Rob Rogers via e-mail at rrogers@marinij.com |