WE MOVED OUT TO LAWRENCE RD. IN DANVILLE BECAUSE IT WAS "THE COUNTRY"

I moved to Danville from LA with my parents in 1963. I attended SRVH and graduated in 1965.

I had an office on Diablo Rd. (one of the old houses) in 1973, and eventually relocated to a larger office in 1974 and both my husband and I have had offices in Walnut Creek over the past 47 years. We owned homes in Walnut Creek, living in the last one on a very private 1/3 acre lot with a huge front and back yard for 30 years.

We decided to sell our home because we wanted to live in the country near our daughter and her family who also live on Lawrence Rd. Our main purpose was because we love the farm/ranch life. We bought a home with 7 plus acres and we currently have farm animals and love the wildlife that we have been surrounded with.

We are noticing that developers are offering millions of dollars to buy up any land they can from "ancestors" of the original farm or ranch owners who lived out here (we are at the very far end of Lawrence where the road dead ends.)

When we bought out here we were told that no one could build on a lot less than one acre. This is still true, but our concern is that developers are hoping that this State Legislature, set to eliminate single family zoning with SB9...and will attempt to purchase one acre or more properties with the hopes of being able to put two residential lots on a single family residential one acre lot or worse yet, divide the two lots of equal size to put 4 units on a single family lot.

Already, two developers have purchase 4 to 5 acre lots and are putting VERY EXPENSIVE $3,000,000.00 HUGE homes on them. Certainly not "affordable"....just BIG.

Our road has always been a "country road" where wildlife could safely walk across the road and munch on grass. Now I am seeing dead fawns, bucks, does, racoons, cottontail rabbits, and other wildlife that are running out of places to be safe. This is a two lane road, and with some of the changes that are already taking place out here, people are speeding up and down the road.

This is an area where people come to walk and enjoy the sounds of the country. We are heartbroken that developers, who could care less about preserving some quiet, open land where people like us, who moved here because that is what we wanted...country lifestyle; quiet, safe, and very little traffic.

I know this sounds trivial considering the people who want to live in Danville and buy an affordable home and safe place to raise their kids. We NEVER expected that the one acre minimum requirement to build would be able to be changed.

There are some ancestors who could care less about the land, but are being enticed by the millions of dollars developers are offering for their acreage. If this SB9 passes, then feasibly ancestors who inherited their families land could take a 4 or 5 acre lot and if a developer wanted to build two to 4 units on one acre; there would be 10 to 20 homes built right next to our fence line. It would not be long until these new homeowners would want to do away with farm animals due to the "smell" or flies" or noise....and try and get a law passed we could not have them out here.

I don't expect a response. We will just have to stay informed and do what we can to preserve the little bit of country land that some people, like us, yearn for.

I want to express my sincere GRATITUDE to all of you volunteers, who are doing your best to maintain the peace and quiet country, small town atmosphere that Danville has had for as long as I can remember.

Thanks so much, Linda Mitchell