Antioch can have both a larger regional park and Roddy Ranch

Payton Perspective logoBy Allen Payton, Publisher

The Roddy property on Antioch’s southern border, and just outside of the city limits totals about 1,800 acres.

The portion inside the city limits and within the county voter-approved and Antioch voter-approved Urban Limit Line is about 700 acres and includes the current Roddy Ranch Golf Course, as well as 640 Antioch voter-approved homes in what was planned to be a gated, upscale community with large lots.

Antioch needs the Roddy project. I’ve been calling it the Blackhawk of Antioch since the beginning, because it can do for Antioch, what Blackhawk did for the San Ramon Valley, specifically, attract business owners and executives to the half-acre, $500,000 and up homes – who will bring their businesses to our area and employ our people.

Without Blackhawk, there wouldn’t be Bishop Ranch, where both AT&T and Chevron have their headquarters and many other businesses are located.

Look to the east at what Brentwood did. They have Applehill Estates, a private, gated, upscale community, plus the four Somerset senior housing communities, and now Trilogy, and I recently learned three other gated communities. Plus, they have two communities built around golf courses along Balfour Road. Those attracted people to their community who have money, who spend it locally and brought their businesses to town and created local jobs.

With 65% of the land in Contra Costa outside the Urban Limit Line already, why can’t the Regional Park District just buy the land that’s in the Roddy partnership and expand the park system there and leave the rest which is inside the line, inside Antioch’s city limits and we can still have the upscale community we need? We can have both.

The good news is, according to Jack Roddy, who I spoke with the day after the Park District Board’s vote, the park district purchase is not a 100% done deal. So, we still can have both. Antioch leaders need to help make it happen.


4 Comments to “Antioch can have both a larger regional park and Roddy Ranch”

  1. Christopher Grisham says:

    Hello Allen,

    First off, I am a big fan. I am also in support for a nice gated community. However, despite having a gate to keep the so called “bad guys” out, how is this place supposed to be kept safe if we still do not have enough police? Furthermore, I believe if Harper, Rocha, and Tiscarino are still up on that magic stage (city council meetings) putting on their smoke and mirrors show, this gated community will turn into a gated ghetto slum within 4 months.

    Remember, these are the elected officials that voted down the rental license ordinance because they were pressured from an apartment association. An entity as frivolous as an apartment association had the power to defeat these three officials. They would rather listen to an apartment association instead of the PEOPLE OF ANTIOCH.

    Good day,

    CG

    • Publisher says:

      Thank you for your kind words, CG.
      Roddy Ranch won’t be built over night. But, it will be a private, gated community with its own security. Hopefully, if the sales tax increase passes, that will give the city more revenue to hire additional police, starting next year. So by the time the Roddy project starts selling homes, things will have improved.
      Allen Payton, Publisher

  2. karl says:

    for over 20 years the antioch residents are told by city leaders, if they approve this or that new development, antioch will rise to new heights.
    so, just look around…what happens to all those promises?
    nothing happens..absolutely nothing. the city is falling apart. crime, blight, businesses leaving the city by the bus loads. the council just declared a fiscal emergency.
    on the other hand..council woman rocha got 20,000 for one of her projects, and the council members have the highest cost of employment as elected officials in the area.
    nothing is done to plan on the highway 4 extension, or bart station, or any infrastructure around the new bart station.

    till our city leaders get their act together…

    no more houses development until our problems are fixed.

    • Publisher says:

      Karl,
      A gated community of upscale homes on half-acre lots is not just another subdivision. The Roddy Ranch project should have been built long ago, but it kept being delayed and roadblocks put in it’s way. No when it’s ready, the city just gives up and let’s it get purchased by the EBRPD? Wrong move for the future benefit of our city. Why can Brentwood have 5 upscale, gated communities, plus 4 senior gated communities, plus the new Trilogy senior community, plus the two developments built around golf courses along Balfour, and we shouldn’t have even one? Look at the success Brentwood has been experiencing with a 30% budget surplus, fully staffed police department, and much less crime than Antioch. Hmmmm. I wonder what we can do differently? Roddy Ranch is part of the solution.
      If we want to ever attract business owners and executives who will bring their companies to Antioch and employ our people and help grow our local economy, which will produce more revenue for the city, which will pay for city services, such as police, we need Roddy Ranch to be built.
      Allen Payton, Publisher

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