Dear Fellow SVHOA Member:
Contributing to Save Acalanes Ridge: It is Time to do Our Part Again!
We started this effort, and it is time to do our part to help finish it.
In 2003 members of the Secluded Valley Homeowner’s Association rallied, in impressive numbers and energy, to ask the City of Lafayette to save Acalanes Ridge from development. Nearly 100 of our members signed a petition to the City of Lafayette, and many of you passionately wrote and spoke at public meetings. Lafayette responded, and stopped the development.
In 2008, we again asked Lafayette, Walnut Creek, East Bay Regional Park District, and Muir Heritage Land Trust (“MHLT”), to help fund the permanent acquisition of Acalanes Ridge to protect it for posterity … and for us. They have done so again, and generously. Lafayette, Walnut Creek, East Bay Regional Park District have agreed to contribute approximately $1.2 million to acquire the Haji property for permanent open space protection. MHLT, a highly respected organization, has agreed to lead the acquisition and to be responsible for management of the property in perpetuity.
MHLT must do one more thing. It must raise approximately $430,000 to fund the remaining portion of the purchase price and to permanently endow maintenance and protection of the property. The money must be raised prior to the December 22, 2010 close of the purchase, or the deal will die. The bulk of the money MHLT needs to raise must necessarily come from donors outside our Association. But those donors look to local community support in gauging whether that community is committed enough to deserve support.
This is where we come in. We have worked on this project with other Lafayette and Walnut Creek residents and organizations, and we will continue to do so. The Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation (“WCOSF”) has been particularly instrumental and wonderful. We do not need to do all of the MHLT fundraising, but we do need to actively work to support it.
We have started. The Acalanes Ridge Committee, which worked to stop development and helped organize public funding, and which is constituted primarily of members of our Association, has reconstituted itself. All current members of the SVHOA Board and Acalanes Ridge Committee have committed to significant personal contributions.
This can be, and should be, our legacy. No one directly benefits from preservation of Acalanes Ridge more than our Association. It is beautiful. It enhances our home values. It is a source of pride. It can be preserved forever.
And, if Acalanes Ridge is not saved now, it will never be saved, for this opportunity will never arise again.
We ask you ALL to join us. No gift – even $25 or $50 – is too small. Please give more if you can, and as much as you can (the largest SVHOA member gift so far is $5000). This is a time to be selfless, and to be generous of spirit. After all that Lafayette, Walnut Creek, EBRPD, WCOSF and MHLT have done, we cannot let them down.
Donations are tax deductible and can be made to the Acalanes Ridge campaign by following the “How to Help” links to “Donate” at www.muirheritagelandtrust.org, or through any Board member. Please be sure to specify “Acalanes Ridge” for your donation on either the website donation page or check. Also, please be sure to let us know if you give, so that we can tell MHLT how many of us have contributed and it can use that information to support its broader fundraising efforts (we will keep contributions confidential, if you wish).
With deep gratitude,
Your Board of Directors, and the Acalanes Ridge Committee.
