As local environmental stories go, this one is either half empty or half full, depending on one’s perspective. The city of Dublin approved a developer’s plans to build 320 new homes in the pristine and fast-disappearing East Bay foothills off the I-680 corridor. That was in December.
Now, as part of the deal, they’re trying to work out the developer’s transfer of 1,615 acres of grasslands beside those future homes to the East Bay Regional Park District. (That’s the area, pictured, with Mount Diablo in the distance.) It would be added to an existing regional park in Doolan Canyon (straddling Alameda and Contra Costa counties) that’s closed. Reasons: It’s too small and has no visitor facilities. Mercury News
