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SAVE STRAWBERRY CANYON
Save Strawberry Canyon is a citizens’ group that seeks to preserve and protect the watershed lands and cultural landscape of Strawberry Canyon. Save Strawberry Canyon was formed out of the urgent need to take action in response to the threat of intrusive, inappropriate development on the Canyon lands. Strawberry Canyon, opposite the Golden Gate, is a unique link to the East Bay Regional Park District lands and, by its streams and views, to San Francisco Bay. The Canyon itself with its streamside vegetation, oak-bay woodlands, grasslands, and surrounding slopes, is arich repository of wildlife directly adjacent to the dense urban populations of the UC Berkeley Campus and the cities of Berkeley and Oakland. Save Strawberry Canyon seeks to inform the public about the impacts of proposed developments, to encourage location of such developments to more suitable sites, and to promote better public access to the beautiful Canyon with its wildlife and scenic resources. — Mission Statement
January 15, 2010
Russ Gould, Chair
HAND DELIVERED Re: Certification of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Addendum and Adoption of Findings and Approval of Design, California Memorial Stadium (Stadium) Seismic Corrections and West Program Improvements, Berkeley Campus Dear Chair and Members of the Board of Regents: The Board of Save Strawberry Canyon asks the Regents to consider not only the seismic situation under the Stadium, but also the geological conditions eastward of it. Impact analysis of the unstable caldera (volcano cavity) above the Stadium has not been included in either the Addendum or the previous CEQA documents. This oversight is of significant consequence due to the fact that the Addendum now incorporates the amended Alquist-Priolo Act. The amended Alquist-Priolo Act has the effect of potentially changing and expanding the future uses of the Stadium complex, which, in turn, would further expose the public to perilous earthquake conditions. Please find enclosed for your review a video, The Fault: Quakes, Slides, and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Clear evidence of an active Hayward Fault is most obvious looking at the east and west halves of the Stadium that move respectively south and north on average one centimeter per year, resulting in the bad offset over section KK and the distortion of the piers. This movement is minor compared to the damage predicted to occur at any time due to a 6.5 to 7.0 magnitude quake. In effect, the proposed retrofit might possibly prevent the heavy west wall from toppling in the event of a severe earthquake, but landslides coming off the hillsides created by the caldera behind the Stadium might very likely compound destruction by inundating or destroying the east side. It is objectionable that the very provisions in the Alquist-Priolo Act adopted to ensure constraint of construction for those buildings and structures located on an earthquake fault have been amended by the University’s own actions for the purposes of accommodating expanded use of the Stadium. Save Strawberry Canyon urges the University to be thorough in its environmental review, consider its responsibility to the public welfare, and, thus, to retrofit the Stadium only for Cal Football game events, limiting use of the Stadium for the purpose for which it was built. Thank you for your attention and consideration of these important matters.
Encl. Video cassette “The Fault: Quakes, Slides, and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab"
cc: Leslie Schilling, Chair, Grounds and Building Committee |