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Here's what it's all about...

The city of Pleasanton is currently considering whether to approve plans to build a mega waterslide within the boundary of Shadow Cliffs Regional Park, which is part of the East Bay Regional Park District. The proposed waterslide will be comparable to "Raging Waters" in San Jose.

After reviewing the applicant's proposal, the City of Pleasanton's Planning Commission voted AGAINST approval of this project. Read an excerpt from the Planning Commission's report. However, the Pleasanton City Council still has the final vote, and they have indicated that they are still in favor of this project, because they believe this project supports the goals of the Youth Master Plan. They'll vote on this project on March 16th.

We feel it is important that more residents of the Tri-Valley area are better informed of the current plans for this expansion project, and the potential negative impact these plans may have on the entire area. Currently it appears that the proponents of this plan are hoping to get this project approved "under the radar" of the Tri-Valley Community members.

The proposal includes:

  • An alteration of approximately 20 acres of natural habitat
  • A forecasted increase in visitors to 200,000+ per season (currently, the park has about 50,000 visitors per season)
  • A paved road to be build over existing hiking trails
  • An additional 800 car parking spaces (almost double the existing number) and 47 large bus parking zones
  • An increase to 23 total water slides, 4 elevated platforms, a raft conveyor
  • Wave pool, lazy river slide, sidewinder ride (when the lazy river ride is completed it will be the longest such ride in the entire United States)
  • Body speed slides and surf hill slides with elevated platforms
  • Several additional concession stands
  • Large public address speaker system installed throughout park
  • 2 admission Kiosks with 4 traffic lanes into the admission area

All of these changes will bring many unwanted changes to the area, including:

  • An daily average of 4,000 more people in the water park at peak times (this is in addition to the normal park users for hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, swimming, dog walking, bird watching etc)
  • Large increase in traffic - there is no easy freeway access which means all traffic coming and going to the waterslide will be routed down already congested streets such as First St., Valley and Stanley, and from Livermore, Isabel and Vineyard will become even more congested. Current plans include CalTrans authorization to install signage to the water park along Interstates 580 and 680, with 580 east and westbound traffic to use Airway Boulevard exit to Isabel. Does the city of Livermore agree to this increase in congestion? Imagine 580 at rush hour any normal day, then add an increase of 900+ cars coming and going on a daily basis.
  • In the summer months when the Valley is known to have the highest levels of air pollution in the Bay area, we will be contributing to increased pollution with long lines of cars idling as they wait to either enter or exit the park
  • In an era when we should be challenging our municipalities to become models of conservation and resource protection, the proposed water slides would be using 2,500 gallons of water per minute. The lazy river and wave pool alone will require 1,000,000 gallons of water to run. An estimated 2.5-4.2 million gallons of water per season will be consumed. Is this a logical use of vital resources?
  • Loss of greenbelt and natural habitat, altering about 20 acres of habitat to raccoons, gray fox, red fox, lizards, bobcats, snakes, rabbits and numerous birds and plants. Can we really afford to sacrifice existing greenspace buffer zones.
  • Increase in noise/litter problems
  • Increase in vandalism and crime. Click here to view a letter written to the City Council about crime and the listing of Police calls made to Water World during 2003. (You'll need to have Adobe reader on your computer to view this PDF document)
  • Decreasing property values of nearby homes in Livermore and Pleasanton.

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