What’s Going on with the PROS Plan?

Overview of the PROS Plan

The basic purpose of Belmont’s Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Plan is to set the framework for decision makers in the planning, maintenance, development, and or rehabilitation of Belmont’s Parks and open space system for a 15-year horizon. Belmont’s last PROS plan was completed in 1992, so it was long overdue for a revamp.

What’s happened so far in Belmont’s PROS Plan process

In February of 2021, the City kicked off the PROS plan process, which was expected to take one year to complete. The City did an outstanding job of creating a community-driven plan, and bent over backwards to get input from the entire community. The process included 19 Parks and Recreation Commission meetings, four City Council meetings, 11 focus groups, a community-wide survey that got more than 2,800 responses, a dedicated website (www.belmontPROSplan.com), and an “open house” event at Waterdog open space, where the public could talk directly with city staff and the environmental consultants that it hired.

Although the process was originally supposed to take a year, it got dragged out to over a year and half, thanks to a handful of affluent homeowners who live next to the trailheads. They demanded wholesale changes to open space policies that were totally out of step with the community’s wishes. They showed up at just about every meeting, berating the commission and staff, demanding severe restrictions to recreational use, including having Waterdog open space designated a “nature preserve,” excluding bicycles from all singletrack, and completely decommissioning the popular Lake Loop trail.

All of the issues were thoroughly evaluated by City staff, as well as the city’s independent environmental consulting firm. The conclusion was that the habitat in Belmont’s open space is healthy, and that existing multi-use recreation policies are not causing significant harm to the environment. For example, the trails consist of 1.3% of the land in the open space, and of that 1.3%, less than 10% had significant erosion. No reason was found to make radical changes to Belmont’s inclusive policies—which have been in place for over 30 years—of allowing hikers, cyclists, trail runners, and dog walkers to share and enjoy all of the trails. Data from the PROS plan confirmed that over 80% of the community wants to keep these inclusive policies in place. The PROS plan includes new policies to balance recreation and conservation by adding safety features to trails and protecting riparian habitat.

In short, the plan followed the science, gave the community what it wanted, and built in recommendations to continue to keep our open space sustainable and in great shape. The Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously voted to approve the plan and send it to City Council, and City Council was supposed to vote on it at its July 26 meeting. (The final draft plan can be viewed here.)

A single homeowner has thrown sand in the gears of the PROS plan

Unfortunately, the PROS plan has now ground to a halt because a lawyer, hired by failed 2018 City Council candidate Deniz Bolbol, has threatened the City with a lawsuit under CEQA.

What is CEQA?

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a California statute passed in 1970 and signed into law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan to institute a statewide policy of environmental protection. CEQA does not directly regulate land uses, but instead requires state and local agencies within California to follow a protocol of analysis and public disclosure of environmental impacts of proposed projects and adopt all feasible measures to mitigate those impacts. Generally speaking, CEQA only applies to “projects” that a public agency does that has the potential to either (1) cause a direct physical change in the environment or (2) cause a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.

CEQA law is very complicated and technical, and complying with it is very costly for public agencies. It is usually beyond the expertise of even the most seasoned city attorneys, and typically, specialty legal counsel and CEQA consultants have to be brought in. Unless the City can prove CEQA doesn’t apply to its action (by proving exemptions or preparing complex documents called “negative declarations” or “mitigated negative declarations”), it must undergo an Environmental Impact Review (EIR) process, which can take many months or even years. EIR costs cities tens of thousands of dollars in staff and consultant time.

The dark side of CEQA and “greenmailing”

At this point, you may be scratching your head and thinking “wait a minute, how is the PROS plan a “project,” since it’s just a plan and a framework for the future, and it doesn’t break ground on any new construction?” CEQA shouldn’t apply to the PROS plan, and the city shouldn’t have to delay it for months or spend tens of thousands of dollars to do an EIR. But here’s the problem: CEQA allows a person suing the city to recover their attorney’s fees if they prevail in a CEQA suit. (But the City doesn’t get to recover its fees if it prevails, so it’s “heads you lose, tails I win.”) This has spawned a cottage industry of opportunistic lawyers who bring questionable CEQA suits, run their fees up to the hilt, and “greenmail” cities. (The Atlantic wrote an excellent article about this here.) Most people have heard of frivolous “shakedown” lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—CEQA lawsuits can be very similar.

As one California Court of Appeal recently noted, "something is very wrong" with CEQA if it can so easily be "subverted into an instrument for the oppression and delay of social, economic, or recreational development and advancement." Tiburon Open Space Committee v. County of Marin (May 12, 2022, A159860) Cal.Rptr.3d (2022 WL 198892)

In our opinion, the CIty of Belmont is now being “greenmailed” by a single homeowner who is disgruntled that the final draft PROS plan didn’t conform to her extreme views. The City’s environmental consultants found no scientific or policy reason to include unprecedented restrictions to recreation in the plan that the homeowner was demanding, so now the homeowner is suing to try to get her way. Because the City now faces the threat of an award of hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees (thanks to CEQA’s unlevel playing field), it must now hire CEQA attorneys and consultants and spend tens of thousands of dollars to refute all of the claims of a single homeowner and her lawyer.

What’s next?

When will the City complete its CEQA process and finally approve the PROS plan? Nobody can say for certain, but at minimum it will be several more months. We are confident that the City will dot all of its “i’s” and cross all of its “t’s” to make sure the PROS plan will come out intact through this process. It may require some minor tweaks to be fully CEQA compliant, but we hope the City will stand up to this legal bullying and won’t make any fundamental changes to the plan. Unfortunately, this further process is going to significantly delay the plan that the Parks and Recreation Commission worked so hard on, and it will cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

I want everyone to be able to enjoy the trails in Waterdog. What can I do to help?

Because the CEQA process can be so long, it’s almost certain that the next City Council, not the current one, will be making the ultimate decision on the PROS plan. At this juncture, the most important way to preserve our access to open space is to vote for and support candidates for City Council and Mayor who take an inclusive approach to open space management.

At the upcoming November 8, 2022 election, Belmont will be electing its very first at-large mayor (elected by the whole city). The two candidates are Julia Mates (current mayor and councilmember) and Warren Lieberman (current councilmember). Our members have interviewed both candidates to get their positions on open space. Julia Mates is clearly the best candidate for those who feel open space should remain open to all. Julia is not a mountain biker, nor does she have any ties to the cycling community, but she hikes the open space with her school-age children, she understands Waterdog’s culture and traditions of sharing, and she solidly supports inclusive open space management policies. We support Julia Mates because she has a “we’re all in this together” approach, and her vision includes keeping the open spaces open and accessible to the whole community.

In stark contrast, Warren Lieberman has been in office for nearly 20 years, and we think he would use his office to take care of special interests. His political patrons and allies include the very people who are trying to limit access to our open space. He has consistently spoken in favor of segregating trails and designating “hiker only” trails. One of his campaign platforms is to “re-commit to protecting our parks and open space” which is a dog whistle to his well-heeled constituents who are working to keep people out away from the open space that adjoins their houses. Unlike Mr. Lieberman, Julia is not beholden to these special interests.

At this point, the single most important thing we can do to keep our open space open is to support Julia’s bid for Mayor. If Mr. Lieberman wins, he and his allies will push to delay the PROS plan and revise it to restrict access. One of his closest allies wrote an article in the San Mateo Daily Journal calling for exactly that. The bias and misinformation in that article was called out here and here. (Note: if the article/letters are behind a paywall, clear your browser cookies.)

There are several ways you can help Julia win, including donating a few bucks to her campaign, displaying her lawn sign (if you live in Belmont), and spreading the word among your friends and neighbors. We encourage you to visit www.juliamates.com where you can learn more about her. Her website has a contact form to request a sign, and a donation link.

Another way to help is letting City officials know you want them to keep managing Belmont’s trails in an inclusive way, as they have for the past 30+ years, letting them know you support multi-use trails, and that you don’t want to see any major changes to the current draft of the PROS plan. You can email the City at prcomm@belmont.gov, citycouncil@belmont.gov, and info@belmontprosplan.com. The City values input from open space visitors from neighboring communities, because they are stakeholders too, but it’s especially important that it hears from Belmont residents because those are the City officials’ direct constituents.

You can also speak directly to the City Council and Parks and Recreation Commission during public comment period at their meetings. At every meeting, whether or not the PROS plan is on the agenda, you can speak on that topic, either in person or via Zoom. The City’s page showing upcoming meetings and agendas is here.