LIVERMORE — For more than 25 years, Alameda County voters have held the final say over changes to Measure D, the landmark growth-control measure protecting ranchland and open space around Livermore. County supervisors are now considering whether to ask voters to surrender some of that authority.
District 1 staff have begun reviewing ways to ask voters to allow the Board of Supervisors to amend Measure D without seeking countywide approval for each change. Under one proposal, amendments would require a four-fifths vote of the board. That authority could eventually allow mid-sized wineries and event spaces to operate on parcels smaller than the 100-acre minimum established by the urban growth boundary measure voters approved in 2000.
Opponents warn that giving supervisors such authority could weaken the urban growth boundary and encourage estate housing or commercial development on land voters intended to protect.
Measure D limits development on the vast majority of unincorporated rural land — primarily in East County surrounding Livermore and in the Castro Valley Canyonlands — to single-family home and agricultural uses. The ordinance explicitly states it can only be amended through a countywide vote…