A legal review presented in September to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors shows that the proposed 187-unit suburban development would violate numerous local laws.

Say the word neighborhood and for some it evokes a colorized version of the 1950s — a house on a cul-de-sac, Dad throwing the ball to his Little Leaguer. That seems to be what Nicholas Lemann prefers in his anti-city essay in the New Yorker.

If you had 43 acres of open space in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, would you dedicate most of the land to surface parking? Tell San Jose to rethink Almaden Ranch!

On November 2, Sonoma voters can renew the lines in Santa Rosa and Petaluma and establish the first one in Cloverdale.

The San Ramon City Council voted 5-0 in July to place an item on the Nov. 2010 ballot that expands the city’s urban growth boundary to include part the Tassajara Valley.

A legal review released July 1 shows that the proposed 185-unit “New Farm” project in the Tassajara Valley would, if approved, violate numerous local laws and policies.

This November Santa Rosa and Cloverdale can set some good boundaries. City councils in both Sonoma communities voted this week to put urban growth boundary measures on the November ballot.

Developers are pushing Contra Costa County officials to approve a 193- unit housing development in the Tassajara Valley called “New Farm.” They’re also mobilizing a campaign convince San Ramon to expand its urban growth boundary.

Saturday, January 30, Executive Director Jeremy Madsen will share Greenbelt Alliance’s Grow Smart Bay Area vision at the annual Bay Area League Day hosted by the League of Women Voters.

A June 16 editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle calls Grow Smart Bay Area “a refreshingly upbeat view of the future.”