21655 / 57.6% Yes votes ...... 15921 / 42.4% No votes

See Also: Index of all Measures

Web Site of Supporters of Measure T

Measure T was put on the ballot by over 13,000 Fremont residents and is endorsed by a wide array of civic leaders and community groups, including the local League of Women Voters, Ohlone Audubon Society, Tri-City Ecology Center, Ohlone Humane Society, the Mayor of Fremont, and the retired Police Chief.

Here's what Measure T does:

• Preserves the scenic beauty and open space of our Fremont hills
• Prevents sprawling subdivisions on the hills surrounding Mission Peak
• Saves taxpayers the expense of providing additional police and fire services and other infrastructure to these areas
• Maintains existing use of the hills for agriculture, outdoor recreation, and rural residences
• Prevents development on steep slopes and ridgelines and in critical wildlife habitat and wetlands in the hill area
• Keeps our local roads free from the thousands of additional cars that hillside sprawl would bring
• Requires a vote of the people to change these long-term protections

Without Measure T, Fremont will lose one of its most beautiful natural treasures and instead be subjected to the increased air and water pollution and greater traffic congestion that come with over-development.

Fortunately, we have a choice. Vote to protect our hills and keep Fremont beautiful.

Please Vote Yes on Measure T to safeguard our quality of life now and for future generations. Thank you.
s/MAY CHEN MEI, Proponent of Friends of the Ridgelands
s/ROBERT WASSERMAN, Fremont City Councilmember
s/GUY EMANUELE, President, Fremont Unified School District
s/ALEXANDRA STARR, President, League of Women Voters of Fremont, Newark and Union City
s/HELEN M. SOWERS, President (Acting), Ohlone Audubon Society

Don't be fooled. Measure T masquerades as a grassroots effort to save the hills. But grassroots efforts do not hire paid petition carriers to gather the signatures required to place a proposal on the ballot. Grassroots efforts do not distort the facts.

• Measure T will destroy the value of the ranch and farmland without compensating the owners for their loss. It violates the property rights of the farmers and ranchers who own the thousands of acres on the backside of the hills.
• Measure T radically restricts the creation of vineyards, green houses and even outlaws Christmas tree farms. Why?
• Measure T could leave the future of the backside of the hills up to the residents of Livermore and Pleasanton.
• Measure T will change our neighborhoods forever by forcing the City to allow more high-rise apartments and high-density housing. Such highdensity housing would increase traffic on the City's already crowded streets.
• Don't be fooled. Measure T will not save taxpayers money. The type of development it promotes would greatly increase the cost of providing basic City services. That cost would be passed onto Fremont residents in the form of higher taxes.

This new initiative is aimed at the backside of the hills extending beyond the Sunol Golf Course and as far as the Santa Clara County line.

The land in question is privately owned property and there will be no new open space created for public use.

Its limits could only be imposed if the land were annexed to the city. But its terms are so arbitrary and burdensome that no one would ever ask to be annexed. Instead, if someone wanted to use their land for something that this initiative would prohibit # like commercial vineyards # they would be free # and in fact # turn in a different direction # perhaps annexation by Pleasanton or Livermore, or incorporated as part of Sunol or as an entity of its own.

Some of this initiative's proposed restrictions are just plan weird. It is odd that hospitals, cemeteries and prisons could be built. However, no commercial vineyards? No riding stables? No nurseries? What do you have against grapes, horses, or Christmas trees?

This initiative is so aggressive that it virtually demands lawsuits against the city by landowners who are left with no other way to defend their legal rights to live on their land and earn a living for their families. Paying city lawyers more of your hard-earned tax dollars to defend lawsuits would be a WASTE.

For more than 20 years Fremont City Council has been protective of the hills and your ability to enjoy their beauty, that won't change. Trust the city council that you elect to do its job. Don't take this out of their hands.

VOTE NO.
s/JACK PARRY, Businessman
s/BILL PEASE, Fremont City Council Member

The 1981 Initiative does not apply to land annexed from the county. That land could be intensively developed, and with the accompanying provision of city services, the entire hill area would be open for development. Measure T plugs that loophole.

Without Measure T, thousands of homes could cover the hills, even spilling over the ridge and across the hill face. Moreover, these would be luxury homes that would do nothing to help Fremont's need for affordable housing. They would worsen traffic and air quality problems, and would result in higher taxes for Fremont residents to pay for additional police and fire protection services in the hills.

Measure T expressly protects the property rights of landowners. Existing land uses will still be permitted but future large-scale development and subdivisions would not. Contrary to what the pro-development side falsely claims, Measure T does not preclude riding stables, nurseries or vineyards. Not surprisingly, the leading opponents of Measure T have a financial interest in environmentally destructive, over-development of our hills.

Twenty years ago we led the initiative campaign to save the Fremont hills. Now we enthusiastically support Measure T. Let's keep Fremont beautiful for another twenty years and beyond.

Please vote YES.
s/GUS MORRISON, Mayor of Fremont
s/JUDY ZLATNIK, Vice Mayor of Fremont
s/DONNA OLSEN, Founder and Board Member, Tri-City Ecology Center
s/JEAN HOLMES, League of Women Voters of Fremont, Newark and Union City, Former Chair-Fremont Planning Commission
s/STUART GUEDON, Archaeologist