Lamorinda's Future Look Being Decided Now - How High Can We Go? Exactly What Is A "Vibrant" Downtown?

If you live in one of our three hamlets and have more than a passing interest in what the future will bring you should know that the future is being decided now.

Height restrictions, Downtown Specific Plans, setbacks, site densities, scenic corridors are all issues currently being discussed by our respective Town Councils and the multitude of commissions and committees assigned to look into the problem are coming up with plans of concern to all Lamorindans as we are moved into the future.

What EastBayDaze is seeing, though, is that not every Lamorindan wants to be brought into the future, and talks of building new, "vibrant" downtown areas - already on Town Council agendas in all three towns - is sparking sharp debate about our past, our present lifestyle, and our collective future.

For many, attempts to develop our downtown areas into bustling, revenue producing centers of commercialism have a hollow ring to them. More buildings, more business - more traffic, more noise. All things many of you who moved here sought to escape.

EastBayDaze cannot help but remember back in caveman days when Orinda's Theatre Square was going in. There was bitter debate then and, eventually, legal action taken to prevent destruction of arguably the single most identifiable Art Deco landmark in town - the Orinda Theatre, and adjacent bank building in order to make way for what many regard as a rather "plain Jane" commercial development which, to this day, has proven unable to hold tenants.

Lafayette's vision for its downtown is also sparking controversy as residents and developers square off over revisions to their Downtown Specific Plan and discussion about the height of buildings under which traffic flows.

"If you approve the height and density restrictions proposed in this (revised draft) plan, you might as well shrink lap Lafayette and hand it over to the Lafayette Historical Society, because nothing will change for decades," developer Chris Watson - who owns the property along Lafayette Circle near Chow - told council members in Lafayette recently.

Residents attending the meeting had an entirely different view, it seems: "Why are we doing this?" a person in the audience asked. "Nobody wants this plan!"

Another pointed out that "there are already two highways already running through Lafayette - Highway 24 and Mt. Diablo Boulevard..."

That level of bustle irks many Lafayette residents and scares people living in Orinda and Moraga - where architect's drawings of multi-storied buildings in remarkably traffic-free environments are surfacing.

Many of those people responded to our story and to The Chronicle when their architecture man, John King, suggested it was time for Orinda to embrace the "vibrant" downtown concept and lift height restrictions - and set them at 57 feet.

To be honest, we didn't think anyone but EastBayDaze would notice. We were wrong.

"I am a 5 year resident of Orinda," one of our readers wrote. "My wife and I moved out here after many years in SF. We are 40 years old. So I probably fit John King's younger demographic that wants a "vibrant" downtown...but he is dead wrong. I like Orinda just the way it is. If I want "vibrant, I head into SF."

So there you have it. The battle lines are being drawn. The Lafayette City Council will discuss the subject of height and density limitations in the weeks to come and forward their plan to an environmental consultant for analysis. The community would then have three or four months while the EIR is being prepared to continue to debate and hopefully resolve these issues. Then - next spring - the plan, EIR, and community input, will all be delivered to the City Council for final discussion, resolution, wrap up, and approval.

Moraga is moving forward with its own plan, so far without any significant opposition although a few EastBayDaze readers don't sound too happy about it.

Many of the comments we've gotten echo the sentiments expressed by Linda and Jeff Byberg, of Lafayette, in a letter to their Town Council:

"Our family moved here for the small town atmosphere and quaint charm. We did not come here for large buildings, huge apartment complexes, tunnel like streets, with impossible traffic," they wrote. "That is what the proposed plan would do to this town."

Next meeting of interest to Lafayette residents for whom participation is a part of the process for change:
November 19
Subjects scheduled to be discussed:
Downtown Character, Land Use, Circulation, Downtown Districts (including height and density)
7 pm, Lafayette Community Center