Welcome
On Monday, September 9, 2019, the Shasta/Hanchett Park, Delmas Park and North Willow Glen Neighborhood Associations along with other like-minded neighbors formed a neighborhood-focused group, DANG (Diridon Area Neighborhood Group). The DANG is not anti-development and will focus on ensuring that all aspects of development within the Diridon Station area will be respectful of the existing neighborhoods. The DANG is a collective voice of the neighborhoods that have decades of experience working with City elected leaders, staff, and developers to improve their communities.
It is apparent through the Station Area Advisory Group (SAAG) process that with the exception of the neighborhood volunteers on the SAAG, nearly everyone else at the table attended as a paid professional. As independent, volunteer neighborhood leaders, our individual voice is small. As unified neighborhood leaders, our voice will become louder.
As volunteers who attend numerous meetings after our working hours, we know the difficulty of keeping up with all the changes proposed for the Diridon Station Area. To help us monitor proposals for neighborhood impacts from developers, Google, CalTrain, VTA, BART, High Speed Rail, elimination of the One Engine Inoperable building height limit, council discussions on a Universal Development Fee, the current and changing development limits, and many more proposed changes, the DANG has retained Bob Staedler with Silicon Valley Synergy who has a long history of creating consensus and ensuring development balances the needs of neighborhoods and developers. SHPNA worked tirelessly with the City to ensure that the SAP Center (the last major development in the area) had a traffic masterplan for the large movement of people before and after events. That plan is still relevant to this day. This level of planning and cooperation must be the standard.
To be clear, the DANG’s intention is not meant to stop development, stop Google, or to stop the evolution of the city that we dearly love. The DANG will communicate and advocate for our neighborhoods in a timely and constructive manner. We will continue to be stewards for all our neighborhoods and look forward to changing and welcoming new neighbors and development that is appropriate and complementary
