w a t c h
D I A B L O Save Mount Diablo
Protecting the Mountain Since 1971
Spring 2005 No. 39
The Mangini Ranch !!!
Triple Threat !!!
SMD’s Newest Acquisition Project
ULL, CNWS & ESA
The Mangini Ranch’s 207 acres, Save Mount Diablo’s newest acquisition project, swirls with importance. It winds sinuously through history, biology and geography much like Galindo Creek, the greenlined, blue thread whose headwaters spring up there.
Tens of thousands of acres surrounding Mt. Diablo hang in the balance of three acronyms: ULL— the Urban Limit Line; CNWS — the Concord Naval Weapons Station; and ESA — the Endangered Species Act (federal). We need your help to prevail.
Urban Limit Line
The Ranch is an oak and grassland bowl rising to Lime Ridge—it is adjacent to Lime Ridge Open Space on one side and through chaparral toward the quarried slopes of Mt. Zion on the other. The creek descends north through Crystyl Ranch open space into Concord, its roots the property’s tributaries. Mangini rises south to the Ginochio Ranch, and nearly to Mt. Diablo State Park.
Save Mount Diablo supported Measure J, the successful renewal of the County’s transportation sales tax, because it requires the County and all nineteen Contra Costa cities to either adopt a mutually agreed upon- voterapproved - Urban Limit Line, or to adopt individual Urban Growth Boundries (UGBs) around each city. The mutual Line must be agreed to by April by 75% of the cities representing 75% of the After two years of County’s population, The Mangini Ranch. All photos by Scott Hein negotiations, the and four of the five Mangini family agreed to sell the property to SMD on February 28. county supervisors. The deadline allows time for environmental We have two years to raise $1.45 million. The family will retain review before the Nov. 2006 election. Failure of the cities and the another 25 acres of the 231 acre property. county to reach agreement would cause each city to adopt their own line, approved by their own voters, or lose their loacl street and roads funding from Measue J. Ranchos & Place Names The five-branched Mangini family has a long history which we’re The goal of the mutually agreed upon line is to promote rational just beginning to decipher. The Ranch boundaries hint of even older planning with less traffic congestion. But now, a number of cities roots. The property appears to have largely been made up of are attempting to expand the line to include thousands of acres of ‘sobrante’, or common lands just outside of two Mexican ranchos undeveloped land. Concord wants the tidal portion of the Naval granted in 1828 and 1834, Rancho Monte del Diablo and Rancho Weapons Station; Antioch wants Roddy Ranch; and Brentwood and San Miguel. The property is largely unfenced, but we are surveying Pittsburg are proposing big additions to the line. Clayton is seeking it to determine its exact boundaries. to add parcels east of the city—including on North Peak’s slopes. Rancho Monte del Diablo is Voters are not likely to approve these porposals that will lead to named for a willow thicket continued on page 15 which was later confused with Contra Costa’s highest peak. Special Note & Apologies The two Ranchos developed into We’re sorry that you may be receiving this newsletter after some Walnut Creek and Concord. R. of the “Spring on Diablo” events have taken place. We couldn’t Monte del Diablo was granted to send it out until the Mangini property purchase agreements were finalized. continued on page 10
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