Several times a year I travel to Danville in Contra Costa county
for meetings for my job. Up until recently, I never visited this
part of the Bay Area and the only thing I knew about Danville was
that there is a town of the same name near where I grew up in
Illinois.
Several times a year I travel to Danville in Contra Costa county for meetings for my job. Up until recently, I never visited this part of the Bay Area and the only thing I knew about Danville was that there is a town of the same name near where I grew up in Illinois.
In fact, for the first several visits I didn’t really know if I was in Lafayette, Danville or San Ramon. I just got on Highway 680 and drove until I reached the indicated exit.
Also for the first several visits, I didn’t pay too much attention to my surroundings. I was anxious enough about arriving at the right place on time simply not to see the communities I was driving through.
I did notice the enlargements of historical photos that decorated the Best Western in Danville, though.
A picture of a special train going through town in 1947. An undated photo of a 15-horse team pulling a hay wagon. A group of turn-of-the-20th Century kids outside their school.
Why, it could almost be San Benito County.
Then I paid more attention to the place names. Blackhawk. Crow Canyon Road. Bishop Ranch. Only then did I really notice the hills rising in the distance, hills that were still empty of houses and strip malls and golf courses.
What a contrast with the gated communities, office parks and malls that make up most of the landscape right next to the main roads. The ranches that covered these counties fifty years ago or fewer have been replaced with so-called prestige luxury housing and, frankly, it isn’t a pretty sight.
I will admit that I’m biased against the typical McMansion, loaded with pretentious architectural features such as three-story arches, porte-cocheres on circular driveways, fanlight windows and other current fads, crammed onto a zero-lot line lot with 3 or more garages and tons of luxury features inside. Who wants to clean all those bathrooms? Let alone those third-story exterior windows?
On the other hand, I will defend anybody’s right to live in whatever kind of house they want, but I do think we should all have choices other than the current single-item menu.
On my way to one meeting, I took the wrong exit and didn’t realize it for several miles because the landscape was identical to the one where I should have been. Gated communities with fancy lettering at the gates and water-hungry landscaping were indistinguishable from one another.
I’m hoping that the sewer spill and moratorium, dreadful as they were, will turn out to have saved San Benito County from this fate. By halting the thoughtless development that was going on, we have had time to complete a new Hollister General Plan and get started on a new County plan.
In the meantime, growing concerns about climate change and resource use, combined with the soft-to-collapsed housing market (depending on who you ask) have caused us to become even more deliberate and thoughtful in deciding what to build and how it will affect the San Benito county environment for years to come.
Maybe our planners should take a trip up to the San Ramon Valley area for an example of what not to do.
