THE LEDE
Planning Commission Clears the Way for Wood Ranch Event Space
A 164-year-old family ranch just won the right to open its gates again.
The Danville Planning Commission voted unanimously on July 14 to reject a neighbor's appeal of a small event venue planned for Wood Ranch, the 17-acre spread on Camino Tassajara that has been in the Wood family since the 1860s. The decision clears the way for a 250-person event space on land that has mostly been closed to the public since the 1990s.
Jim and Lisa Wood, whose family has worked the land for six generations, applied for the permit last year. The town approved it administratively in May, finding the plan consistent with Danville's General Plan goal of preserving the site's rural character while allowing limited commercial uses. That set off an appeal from Kathleen Crosthwait, a Normandy Court resident who lives across Camino Tassajara from the ranch.
At the July 14 hearing, Jim Wood framed the venue as the family's answer to a familiar pressure. He said the Woods regularly field offers to sell the land for high-density housing, which he said would mean losing what he described as the largest pre-industrial barn west of the Mississippi and the oldest home still standing in the valley. His daughter, Emily Wood, told commissioners the family closed the ranch to the public decades ago after years of vandalism and trespassing, and that reopening it in a limited, managed way felt like the right moment.
Crosthwait argued the venue is simply a different kind of use than the quiet neighborhood around it, pointing to traffic, noise, and alcohol service as concerns, and questioning whether nearby home values would hold up. She also spoke as a teacher at Sycamore Valley Elementary, about a mile away, and said she would rather see the site used for housing given the school's declining enrollment.
Commissioner Paul Raddich was blunt about the alternative. “I'm in favor of this,” he said, after noting that a denser housing proposal for the site would likely have drawn a far larger and more contentious crowd. His colleagues agreed, and the appeal failed on a unanimous vote.
For more on the town's planning process, see the Danville Planning Commission page.
THE RUNDOWN
Blackhawk Plaza: Still Waiting on the Hearing
The July 15 bankruptcy hearing for Blackhawk Plaza's owner, Ramanujan Group LLC, was set to address a request for a 90-day extension on the deadline to file a full disclosure plan. As of this writing, no outcome from that hearing has been reported. Contra Costa County's FAQ page on the plaza still lists the appointment of a Chief Restructuring Officer, Howard Grobstein, as “anticipated” for August 5, unchanged from last issue. We will confirm both once there is something to confirm.
Background is available on the Contra Costa County Blackhawk Plaza page, which the county updates as information becomes available.
Council to Weigh In on Church Housing Appeal
The Town Council held a public hearing Tuesday on an appeal of the Community Presbyterian Church redevelopment, a 12-acre project at 222 W. El Pintado Road that would replace 21 existing homes with 49 townhouses and 19 accessory dwelling units, alongside an expansion of the church itself. The Planning Commission approved the project unanimously in the spring; ten neighboring residents appealed. Town staff recommended the council deny the appeal and uphold the commission's approval. No outcome had been reported as of this writing.
Two Council Seats Now Open for Filing
The nomination window for November's Town Council election opened July 13 and runs through August 7, extending to August 12 if an incumbent misses the deadline. Two at-large seats are on the ballot: the one held by Karen Stepper, who is not seeking reelection after more than two decades on the council, and the seat currently held by Robert Storer.
Nomination details are posted on the Town's Elections page.
SWAT Standoff on San Thomas Way Ends in Arrest
The domestic disturbance call that brought a SWAT team and negotiators to a neighborhood off Camino Ramon on July 14 ended with an arrest, Danville police confirmed. A man who had been reported to be armed refused to speak with officers before surrendering without incident. He was booked into the Martinez Detention Facility on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence. The case remains under investigation.
FAMILY AND KIDS
Walk, Don't Ride: New Park Rule Starts August 6
Starting August 6, e-bikes and motorized scooters have to be walked, not ridden, inside all Danville town parks. Riders can still bring them in, they just need to dismount at the park boundary. Worth tucking into the family calendar before park season ramps back up for the school year.
Details are on the Town's community news page.
MEANWHILE, ON NEXTDOOR…
A weekly, anonymized roundup of what neighbors are actually talking about.
THE TOWER WARS CONTINUE A long-running argument over new apartment towers near Bishop Ranch reignited this week, with one poster calling the density “outlandish” and pinning it on a single developer, and another neighbor answering with building-by-building floor counts and state housing-mandate citations. It ran for dozens of replies. Nobody changed their mind.
A MAN VS. HIS DEVICES One neighbor's day-in-the-life account of a technology rebellion, gone-pastel iMessages, a password manager with amnesia, a Bluetooth connection that preferred his wife's car to his own calls, made the rounds as comedy gold. Replies ranged from solidarity to a gentle reminder that some of us still miss the banana-seat bike.
ALMOND CROISSANTS, HOMEMADE A local baker turned a box of plain mini croissants into bakery-style almond ones, using a quick AI-assisted recipe, and posted step-by-step instructions along with a photo that drew nearly thirty likes and a string of neighbors promising to try it themselves.
THE GREAT HOSE MYSTERY An Alamo resident's irrigation drip lines keep turning up chewed through, and the neighborhood has opinions: thirsty squirrels, opportunistic rats, cayenne pepper, peppermint oil, vapor rub, buried lines, and one pointed suggestion involving a night-vision camera. No consensus yet on the culprit.
ONLY IN DANVILLE
Front Street Park Is Getting a Famous New Name
The Town Council is set to vote on formally renaming Front Street Park to Eugene O'Neill Park, following up on a June study session where the idea first came up. Staff have already lined up a contractor for a bronze sign, and a formal renaming ceremony is planned to coincide with this year's Eugene O'Neill Festival in September. It is a small park with a large name to live up to.
ON THE CALENDAR
National Night Out | Tuesday, August 4 The annual community-and-cops mixer returns to neighborhoods across town. Worth organizing a block gathering for, even a small one; it is one of the few nights a police visit is a treat rather than a worry. Details
Evenings in Danville: “Right Now” (Van Halen Tribute) | Friday, August 21, Ellis Park Free outdoor concert as part of the summer series. Bring a chair and a picnic; it is the kind of night that makes downtown feel like downtown. Details
THE NUMBER
164
Years the Wood family has worked their Camino Tassajara ranch, according to testimony this month before the Planning Commission, predating Danville's own incorporation by more than half a century.
FINAL THOUGHT
Between a ranch that just won the right to reopen and a church that is fighting to build housing on its own land, this is shaping up to be a summer where Danville argues, mostly politely, about what the valley is actually for.
THE SIDELINE
From the Archives: The Playwright Next Door
Long before Front Street Park had Eugene O'Neill's name on it, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright had already made Danville his final home. O'Neill and his wife Carlotta built Tao House in the hills above town in 1937, drawn by its isolation from Broadway and Hollywood alike. According to local historian Beverly Lane, whose research the Museum of the San Ramon Valley draws on for its own history programming, O'Neill wrote his last and most personal plays there, including Long Day's Journey Into Night, twenty years before the freeway reshaped the valley around it.
O'Neill and Carlotta lived at Tao House until 1944, when his declining health forced them to leave. The property is now the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, preserved by the National Park Service, and its Foundation still stages his plays each September during the town's O'Neill Festival. The upcoming Front Street Park renaming is a small, fitting nod to a writer who chose this small town, over the bright lights, to write the work he is remembered for.
More on O'Neill's Danville years is available from the Museum of the San Ramon Valley and the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site.
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