Dear Commissioners,

As a resident of Contra Costa County and the parent of a Seven Hills School student, I am deeply concerned about the proposed Spieker Development project immediately adjacent to my child’s school. While I do not oppose a development on the site, the current design completely ignores the concerns that we have shared with the developer. We have asked for reasonable compromises to the design that would provide an appropriate buffer from classrooms, for example, without sacrificing density. We believe it would actually be very easy for them to modify the design to create a win-win—they just have to consider our kids.

Rather than rushing the approval on October 26 of this project’s completely inadequate environmental documents, I am asking that you delay approval—and instead, ask Spieker Development to sit down and compromise in good faith with the Seven Hills School community. Please help us bring them to the table.

While they have met with us, they have refused to provide any meaningful compromises in writing to demonstrate that they take our concerns seriously. They’ve laughed in our faces and suggested to us that “they have the votes.” This makes us feel like our kids don’t matter to them. But as keepers of the public interest, I trust that our kids do matter to you. As such, we believe that you, as the Planning Commission, must ask them to engage in mediation with those impacted by the development. After all, this is very standard in real estate development—cities and counties frequently ask developers to make good faith efforts to find common ground with their neighbors.

Our school community believes that continuing the matter for 60 days—along with a strong suggestion by the Commission that they sit down with us and attempt to find compromise—would be adequate, and we believe it would be reasonable.

In its current design, much of the project would tower over our classrooms—blocking sunlight. To date, there has been no consideration of how badly a four-year construction period would disrupt classes and the outdoor activities of our kids—both from the standpoint of incredible noise and unmitigated dust, particulate matter, and other issues. And the developer’s transportation impacts have not been adequately studied or mitigated. We are not against development here, but there are real-world concerns that we have as parents—and these issues deserve the time and attention and discussion necessary to resolve them.

I am not asking that you delay this project for the sake of delaying it; I am asking you to demand that Spieker have mediation meetings with Seven Hills leadership to ensure the health and safety of my child. As commissioners, I understand it is your responsibility to ensure the projects you approve will better the county and are in line with what the county needs. Please do not advance this project before fully considering the impact it will have on nearly 500 children.

The Seven Hills School leadership and parent community is ready and eager to provide Spieker with ideas on how to slightly modify the project to ensure we balance the importance of building the project with the needs and interests of the public. These adjustments would alleviate the concerns we have for our children. On October 26, I ask you to please continue this project until Spieker agrees to a mediation meeting so that we can find this win-win.

Best regards,