Facts >> Massive Development and Traffic (3.2 million more car trips per year in Fremont?)

The proposed 520 housing units in the Patterson Ranch proposal plus the 276 units (3-story condos, townhouses, and houses) being built right now on the 15.5-acre Tupelo lot would generate 270,000 additional car trips per month, or 3.2 million more car trips per year throughout the City. [Click on photos to enlarge]

This presents a heavy burden on street maintenance for Fremont, which already cannot adequately service current needs [read Argus article]. For example, drive on Niles Blvd., Thornton Ave., and at Decoto & Fremont Blvd., and see the bad state of disrepair of these major streets. See photo above of potholes on Ardenwood Blvd. overpass [click to enlarge]

Mayor Wasserman was one of over 500 mayors who signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which advocates taking actions such as anti-sprawl land-use policies.² Yet he supports the Patterson Ranch high-density developments at the fringes of city where there is little or no public transportation.

To avoid the traffic, pollution, and global warming problems associated with urban sprawl, Friends of Coyote Hills, other environmental groups, along with city planners advocate transit-oriented housing, which many East Bay cities have adopted.

With the proposed Patterson Ranch development creating traffic congestion (with 3.24 million generated car trips per year in Ardenwood/Forest Park [see map below] and throughout Fremont), the wildlife in the adjacent Coyote Hills would also be affected by the cars’ air and water pollution, and noise, all of which are detrimental to the wildlife inhabiting Coyote Hills.

¹Office of the California Attorney General. "Brown announces landmark global warming settlement." August 21, 2007.