San Ramon: Clarkson talks open space preservation, looming challenges at State of the City

San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson met with residents on Wednesday afternoon to give his annual State of the City address, where he described the challenges facing his city, the achievements it has earned and its plans for the future.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about the accomplishments of the city, but also potentially the more important part of this conversation is what are the challenges that are really facing us… and what are the things our staff and our city is doing to proactively tackle (those) challenges,” Clarkson said to begin his speech.

Sponsored by the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce, Clarkson gave his penultimate State of the City address — he will make his last address as San Ramon’s mayor in 2020 — to approximately 200 city officials, regional government representatives, business leaders and community members gathered at the San Ramon Marriott for the luncheon event.

Open space preservation took centerstage during Clarkson’s roughly 30-minute address, where he focused on two areas in particular: San Ramon’s rolling western hills and the Tassajara Valley.

Clarkson explained that while the city has a working relationship with property owners in the western hills, the Tassajara Valley brings up unique challenges for the city because it is outside city limits but is inside San Ramon’s planning area.

In the Tassajara Valley, factors such as voters moving the urban limit lines, the State passing legislation mandating development or a decision by the county Board of Supervisors can open up the area to extensive development.

“This is a long-term problem for us to keep in mind… the one that I am most concerned about is the State Legislature passing a law saying that the housing crisis… They’re going to pass a law that says ‘we’re going to preempt the county we are going to preempt the city,’” Clarkson said. “So we have top do things today to find a way to protect the Tassajara Valley… we cannot sit back we need to be very proactive on that.”

Preemptively working to protect these areas, four years ago the City Council established the Citizens’ Open Space Committee to explore how to best save San Ramon’s scenic resources. Clarkson praised the committee saying it has done great work in keeping the council appraised of the available options for achieving these goals.

To support the knowledge gained and recommendations made by the committee, the council also established an open space fund, that requires builders to contribute fees to support the efforts. According to Clarkson the fund has current and committed future contributions in excess of $3 million.

Challenges with open space preservation are compounded by the threat of San Ramon losing local control over its development to state officials in Sacramento attempting to fix the state’s housing crisis with a “one size fits all” solution, Clarkson added.

San Ramon has done a good job meeting the housing requirements of its residents, Clarkson said, and legislation proposed by the state seeks to streamline the construction of affordable multi-family housing in certain areas, greatly limiting the city’s ability to govern its own development.

“Going forward, one of the challenges we are going to have as a city is how can we continue to protect existing neighborhoods from the impacted growth and move it so it is beneficial to our retail base, (will) keep traffic low and allow our retailers to really thrive,” he said.

It isn’t all struggle and strife in San Ramon however, as Clarkson took the time to praise the city’s accomplishments and all the things that make it such a well-managed, great place to live.

Clarkson expressed great excitement over San Ramon finally having a new downtown community gathering place, with the opening of City Center Bishop Ranch.

Supporting Bishop Ranch to create City Center has benefited the city in a variety of ways, said Clarkson, including the Bollinger Canyon Road widening project, which reduced traffic in the area, and the construction of City Hall, which allowed the city to not take on any new debt for the site.

The city purchased the old Mudd’s Restaurant property from the state for $1, and is in the process of incorporating it into the Crow Canyon Garden.

San Ramon has been hailed as one of the best places in California to raise a family, the third-best place to be exact. This designation is due in no small part to its claim as one of the safest cities in the country, a fact Clarkson attributed to the tremendous efforts of city staff and the San Ramon Police Department.

The mayor also praised the city’s efforts to become more sustainable, particularly through its new partnerships with Marin Clean Energy and Alameda County Industries of San Ramon — the latter of which will allow the city to divert 90% of its garbage from the landfill and into recycling or compost centers.

When it all comes down to it, Clarkson attributes San Ramon’s “secret sauce” of success to the collaborative efforts of city officials with the numerous local agencies, geared at increasing residents quality of life.

“The secret sauce of why I think San Ramon is exceptional, is we really appreciate our dynamic partnerships with the school district, with the fire district, with East Bay Parks and East Bay MUD, with Dublin San Ramon Services District, and also with our businesses here in town. We really believe in leveraging those relationships,” Clarkson said. “I think that the reason why this whole valley… is so successful is that we work together.”

Clarkson went on to include future plans for the city, which include the creation of a detailed Bike Master Plan and a walking district in the core of the downtown area, to make San Ramon more pedestrian-friendly.

He also expressed excitement over acquiring funds for a pedestrian and bike overpass on Bollinger Canyon for the Iron Horse Regional Trail.

To close his address, Clarkson warned attendees of the potential perils associated with the district transition to district-based elections for City Council seats.

“With district elections you will only vote for one council members every four years. This law essentially disenfranchises us from three quarters of our City Council and I don’t think that is right,” he said. “District elections (have) the potential, in my opinion, of creating an environment where voters become less engaged and less interested in local elections. Their influence drops by a factor of three.”

District elections bring about the risk of City Council members devolving into factionism and only representing the neighborhoods that put them into office, he continued.

Clarkson added that one of the most effective ways to counteract these concerns is to create a culture within the council that city officials represent all of San Ramon, not just their elected community area.

“I really hope that by creating this culture, going forward you may be elected from a district, “District 1,” but (will say) ‘I represent the whole city,’” he said to end the gathering.

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