News Briefs News Briefs (January 20, 2006)

Mayfield EIR open for public comment

A recently released environmental impact report for a controversial housing project at Mayfield Mall appears to give a green light to the project's developer, who hopes to build 578 units on the site.

The EIR, in draft form and open for public comment until the end of the month, says that the proposed project by developer Toll Brothers will generate more than 3,000 car trips a day -- less traffic than the maximum commercial development allowable under current zoning.

The report also says archaeologists dug up the bodies of 155 Ohlone tribesmen at or near the Mayfield site in the early 1900s. The Sacramento-based Native American Heritage Commission has asked for further investigation of the site's cultural resources.

The city's environmental planning commission was scheduled to hear public input on the draft EIR on Wednesday night, after the Voice went to press. The commission was also considering adding a second public hearing for Jan. 25.

Lieber attends execution

State Assembly member Sally Lieber served as a state's witness late Monday night at the execution of Clarence Ray Allen, watching the lethal injection at San Quentin prison from a viewing chamber no more than five or six feet from the dying 75-year-old.

Allen, twice convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, was blind, diabetic and used a wheelchair for the last months of his life, although witnesses said he walked to the death chamber with the help of four correctional officers. He entered the room just after midnight and was placed on a chair. He was dead by 12:38 a.m.

Lieber, who said she's concerned that some of the 645 people on California's death row were wrongly convicted, has asked the governor for permission to witness every execution, but this was the first one she actually saw.

"I felt that I had a responsibility to know the details of what goes on in a state execution," said Lieber. "It was important for me to face the music."

A bill she introduced last year calling for a two-year moratorium on the death penalty was next scheduled to go to the appropriations committee.
-- Jon Wiener

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