CONTRA COSTA COUNTY — Doolan Canyon Regional Preserve has just gotten larger, thanks to the East Bay Regional Park District’s recent purchase of 160 acres about three miles northwest of Livermore.
“The purchase will serve to protect the upper reaches of Doolan Canyon for future recreational opportunities, habitat protection, and open space preservation,” Ayn Wieskamp, president of the park district’s board of directors, said in a news release. “The property will also protect and preserve forever the headwaters of Cottonwood Creek.”
Located in unincorporated southern Contra Costa County, the property is bounded by the district’s Doolan Canyon Regional Preserve to the south and private ranches and agricultural land on its northern, eastern and western sides.
The park district’s board of directors in November authorized spending $1.24 million from Measure WW — a bond measure approved by East Bay voters in 2008 for public land acquisition — to buy the land from the Grove family. The district, which had been negotiating with the Grove family since June, closed escrow recently and took over the property.
Park district spokesman Dave Mason said the purchase will protect the upper reaches of Doolan Canyon for “habitat protection, open space preservation, and potential recreational opportunities,” although setting it up as a park is expected to take “many years” and require environmental assessments and community input.
Until a land use plan is completed and approved, the property will be placed in “land bank status.”
The Doolan Canyon area has long been a source of debate over whether it should be developed or protected, especially as the population of nearby Dublin has grown in recent decades. Groups including the Sierra Club, the Greenbelt Alliance and Save Mount Diablo have pushed for preservation of the land to protect wildlife and help prevent traffic congestion and pollution.
While Mason said park district policy does not allow for comment on “potential” land acquisitions, the district is “interested in preserving additional land for habitat and recreation, including in the Doolan Canyon corridor.”
The park district in 2010 authorized the purchase of 640 acres in the Doolan Canyon area for $6.4 million with funds from the Alameda County Altamont Landfill Open Space Fund, the city of Livermore, the East Bay Community Foundation and Measure WW.
Acquiring the so-called Grove Family property has been a “long-time goal” of the park district, East Bay Regional Park District General Manager Robert Doyle said in a news release.
“The district is pleased acquisition of the property has come to fruition,” Doyle said.
The Doolan Canyon area is a habitat for endangered wildlife, including the Alameda whipsnake and red-legged frog. Preservation of the land will include protecting the wetland habitats that support those animals and other “special status” species, as well as rare alkali soil plants, according to the park district.
