Content area
Full text
The toppling of six-term Livermore Mayor Cathie Brown to slow-growth candidate Marshall Kamena sends a message that would-be developers of North Livermore can't help but hear.
While this week's upset election has reverberations for the entire city, it is Shea Homes and the Lin Family, with their hoped-for 1,300-acre project, that have the most to lose - as much as $5 billion in sales by one count.
But Kevin Peters, vice president of Shea Homes, headquartered in Livermore, said that despite setbacks, including the dismissal of the company's lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court on Sept. 27, the land will be developed. It's simply a question of when, he said.
"One thing to remember is that the City of Livermore has no jurisdictional control over North Livermore," Peters said. "The people elected don't want to see North Livermore happen and that limits the options or the dialogue of the options. But it doesn't change the basic dynamic fundamental issues of the need for housing.
"Nothing that changes on the political landscape changes the fact that five times as many jobs have been created in the Bay Area as houses," he said. "There is a tremendous imbalance between jobs produced and the housing that serves those
jobs. This results in traffic and a host of othert issues that people wrap up and call growth. The basic issue hasn't changed."