THE LEDE
Forty Years Later, a Number Is Still the Problem
Forty years ago somebody wrote a number into a county document, and Danville is still arguing about whether they got it right.
Tuesday was the deadline for Ramanujan Group to file a restructuring plan for Blackhawk Plaza with the bankruptcy court, the date every Blackhawk watcher has had circled since the company filed for Chapter 11 protection back in March. As of this writing, there is no public word on what, if anything, the company actually filed. That is worth watching. It is not the most interesting thing that happened to Blackhawk Plaza this week.
A Blackhawk resident raised something different on Nextdoor after last week’s issue: a claim that Contra Costa County is quietly walking back a 40-year-old promise to protect open space behind the shopping center, and using a clerical error to do it. We went and read the county’s own FAQ page on Blackhawk Plaza to check it out. The resident has a point, and so does the county. It is a more interesting fight than it sounds.
Back in 1985, when the county approved what eventually became Blackhawk Plaza, it attached a condition to the deal. A chunk of land behind the shopping center had to be set aside as open space, kept undevelopable, with development rights handed off to the county to make sure it stayed that way. Residents have cited that condition for years as a hard legal wall against any future housing on the site. The number they have used is 8-plus acres, more than enough to spook anyone hoping to redevelop the plaza into housing.
The county’s FAQ agrees the condition exists. It disputes the math. According to the county, the actual protected parcel is 5.73 acres, about 12.6% of the original 45.5-acre site covered by the agreement, not the 8-plus acres residents have cited and nowhere close to the 80% some have suggested. County staff say the larger number made it into the official paperwork because of changes to the site plan late in the approval process that never got corrected. In other words: not a betrayal, a typo, one that sat unnoticed for four decades until residents started asking questions this spring.
There is a wrinkle that matters more than the acreage. The disputed land is not even county property. It was dedicated to the Blackhawk Homeowners Association back in the 1980s, which means the HOA, not the county, would have to sign off on ever converting it to anything else. And on the specific question that resident raised, whether development rights for that parcel were actually deeded to the county the way the 1985 condition required, the county does not have an answer yet. Its own FAQ says staff are still looking into it.
Why any of this matters beyond the history lesson: Blackhawk Plaza’s future is genuinely up for grabs right now, between the bankruptcy, the vacancies, and a zoning designation that already allows 30 to 75 housing units per acre if anyone ever filed an application, which nobody has. If the open space condition holds up the way residents believe, it takes a real chunk of the property off the table no matter who eventually owns it. If the county’s reading holds instead, that protection covers a smaller sliver of land than anyone assumed, including, as of a few months ago, the county itself.
THE RUNDOWN
Lucky’s Sets a Closing Date
Save Mart has put a number on what Nextdoor has been buzzing about for weeks: the Lucky California store at 660 San Ramon Valley Boulevard in Sycamore Square will close for good on July 17. A company spokesperson cited “economic factors” rather than a specific cause, and signs went up on the doors and checkout stands this week as shelves were partially cleared out.
The company’s other Tri-Valley locations, in San Ramon, Pleasanton and Livermore, will stay open, and Save Mart says it will work to place employees at nearby stores. It is the second Lucky California closure in the Tri-Valley in three years, after the Fallon Gateway location in Dublin shut down in 2023.
E-Bike Rules Clear First Vote
The Danville Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the first reading of a new e-bike ordinance after nearly two years of study sessions and public comment. The rules set a 15 mph speed limit for e-bikes, e-scooters and regular bicycles on park trails, and restrict e-bikes and scooters to paved paths only inside parks. Existing rules banning unsafe riding and keeping bikes off playgrounds and business-district sidewalks stay in place.
The council still has to approve a second reading on July 7 before any of it takes effect, with an August start date if it passes. Public comment ran in both directions: parents and trail users described near-misses with speeding e-bikes, while other speakers argued the rules unfairly single out e-bikes over conventional bicycles that pose similar risks on the same trails.
SRVUSD Adopts Its 2026-27 Budget
The SRVUSD school board adopted its budget for the coming school year at Tuesday’s meeting, with no recorded opposition, clearing the last formal step before a June 30 deadline to submit the budget to county and state officials.
The proposed budget shows a 1.2% drop in revenue against a 5.4% cut to spending, as the district enters year two of a multi-year reduction plan that already eliminated roughly $26 million from the budget last year. That plan produced an estimated $1.9 million surplus in its first year, though district staff project the structural deficit will resurface once the reduction plan winds down after 2027-28. Part of the longer-term fix is already in motion: the district is selling its Danville headquarters at 699 Old Orchard Drive and relocating to a building it purchased in San Ramon, with the extra office space there expected to bring in lease income.
Diablo Road Trail Enters a New Phase
Diablo Road’s long-running trail project moved into a new construction phase this week, with crews building a retaining wall near the creek between Fairway Drive and Alameda Diablo and continuing grading work on the east side of the project. Expect one-way traffic control on Diablo Road between Clydesdale Drive and Alameda Diablo on weekdays through September 15.
The project will eventually close the last gap in a 2.1-mile paved trail connecting Green Valley Road to Blackhawk Road and improve access to Mount Diablo State Park. Full completion is not expected until December.
Measure G Fails at the Ballot
The $920 million Contra Costa Community College District bond measure has officially failed, falling short of the 55% supermajority required even after later-counted ballots pushed it past a simple majority. District Chancellor Mojdeh Mehdizadeh said the loss does not change the maintenance and capital needs the bond was meant to fund, only the path to paying for them. The measure failed alongside Measure B, the other county tax measure that appeared on San Ramon Valley ballots this June, both opposed by the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association.
FAMILY AND KIDS
For families, the headline out of Tuesday’s SRVUSD meeting is less about the dollar figures than what is behind them: a district two years into a deliberate, multi-year belt-tightening plan designed to avoid the kind of sudden, mid-year cuts that rattled parents in years past. That plan holds for one more year before the structural deficit is expected to resurface in 2028-29, so this will not be the last budget conversation worth your attention.
MEANWHILE, ON NEXTDOOR…
What the neighborhood was talking about this week, paraphrased and anonymized as always.
NEW NEIGHBORS WANT TO KNOW WHO HAS THE BEST WIFI: A family preparing to move to the area kicked off a 24-comment thread asking which internet provider to trust, and got an exhaustive, occasionally contradictory answer. AT&T fiber, Xfinity and T-Mobile all had defenders, while one commenter described a years-long fight to recover $7,000 in overcharges and walked away with $1,000 of it. The consensus: shop around, and do not be afraid to switch.
THE MYSTERY 3 PERCENT CHARGE: A dinner bill at a Danville restaurant included a 3% “benefit surcharge,” reportedly to help cover a manager’s health insurance, and the diner who flagged it on Nextdoor got it removed for not being disclosed up front. The post turned into a 71-reply group grievance session about creeping restaurant fees, from extra charges for a side of sauce to automatic tips on parties of two, with a detour into state disclosure law. Several neighbors said they are simply going out to eat less because of it.
A FENCE FULL OF FIREWOOD: A Blackhawk-area resident’s yard now backs up to piles of brush left behind after a fire department weed abatement crew got pulled off the job to respond to an active fire, with plans to burn the debris in place come fall. Neighbors offered sympathy, fire-code citations, and one suggestion to bring in a herd of goats, which a nearby town reportedly already does. As of this week, the homeowner was still trying to get anyone in authority to move the piles sooner.
SOMETHING SHINY IN THE SKY: A driver reported spotting silver, bubble-shaped orbs near Crow Canyon and along Camino Ramon on three separate occasions, ruling out runaway balloons and asking whether anyone else had seen them. Theories ranged from drones to a tongue-in-cheek explanation involving the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Nobody produced a photo, which is somehow the most relatable part of the whole thread.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD HIRES A 16-YEAR-OLD: A local teenager asked Nextdoor for help finding summer work, and the community delivered, with two dozen replies pointing toward restaurants, retail, a country club, and tips on writing a one-page resume. The most popular advice: walk into stores in person and ask, since a lot of summer hiring is locked in before school even lets out.
ONLY IN DANVILLE
The Town’s annual juried art exhibition has a theme custom-built for showing off after dark. This year’s “Art in the Dark” is calling for paintings, sculptures and murals that incorporate some form of glow, illumination or light effect, indoor or outdoor. Submissions are due July 17 through the CaFÉ portal, and selected pieces will hang in a professional gallery setting this fall. If your neighbor’s garage light has been on at odd hours lately, now you know why.
ON THE CALENDAR
Juneteenth Weekend Across the Tri-Valley | June 18-20, Dublin and Livermore
Danville does not have its own marquee Juneteenth event this year, but Dublin’s free Thursday concert at Emerald Glen Park and Livermore’s Saturday festival at Bankhead Plaza are both worth the short drive if you want to mark the holiday with the broader Tri-Valley community.
Kidchella: Banana Slug String Band | July 22, Danville Library and Town Green
The free kids’ music series returns for its second date of the summer with story time at 11:15 a.m. followed by a noon concert on the Town Green. Past Kidchella shows have drawn a real crowd, so claim your patch of grass early if you want to actually see the stage.
Danville Loves Summer | Ongoing through Labor Day, danville.ca.gov/summer
The Town’s weekly rundown of summer programming updates regularly and is worth a quick check before you make weekend plans; it is the easiest way to catch smaller events that never make it into a single headline.
THE NUMBER
5.73 acres
That is the actual size of the open space buffer behind Blackhawk Plaza now at the center of a 40-year-old dispute, not the 8-plus acres residents have cited for years.
FINAL THOUGHT
Forty years from now, somebody will probably be arguing over a decimal point in this week’s e-bike ordinance. Get the number right the first time, people. We are all still living with the last one.
THE SIDELINE
The Sideline is on its scheduled summer hiatus and returns in August when fall sports practice begins.
The Danville Dispatch is an independent, reader-supported newsletter covering Danville, California. We are not affiliated with the Town of Danville, SRVUSD, or any organization mentioned above. Got a tip? Reply to this email.