How a fight over 1,000 feet of Bay Area road led to lawsuits and allegations of corruption
The final 1,000 feet of a remote stretch of road outside of Fremont has turned into an unlikely battleground over public access in the Bay Area, and a war of words that has spiraled into allegations of county corruption and even attempted restraining orders.
The drama centers on Morrison Canyon Road, a rural road that dead ends into the sprawling property of CEO and rancher Christopher George.
It’s also the access point for the relatively new Vargas Plateau Regional Park, a popular park for hiking, biking and horseback riding.
Over the years, George fought with park officials over road safety and parking concerns, resulting in a nearly decadelong battle that delayed its opening, reduced parking spaces, and required East Bay Regional Park District and the City of Fremont to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on road improvements. After a series of lawsuits, the park finally opened permanently in 2017.
But the battle now seems to have shifted to the final .2 miles of Morrison Canyon Road.
In recent months, a member of the Mission Peak Conservancy, a local public access advocacy group, obtained an email via a public records request in which a county employee, Shawn Wilson, advocated for “abandoning the right of way” so that the final 1,000 feet of road could be ceded to George.
In the email, Wilson wrote that George had expressed concern that the road was becoming a haven for illegal dumping, drug deals, sex and crime and that the county had “no need for the road.”
Kelly Abreu, one of the members of the Mission Peak Conservancy, argued that the email was akin to a “pay for play” scheme. In 2022, George’s company donated $10,000 to Supervisor David Haubert’s campaign, for whom Wilson is the Chief of Staff. In Abreu’s view, this had happened before — in 2016, an Alameda County grand jury found that Wilson, then a staffer for Supervisor Scott Haggerty, had lobbied county staff to make decisions that would benefit the supervisor’s donors.
Wilson told this news organization he was simply passing along a request from a constituent and was shocked that it had raised any allegation of ill intent.
“I was just doing my job, I just asked the question,” Wilson said. “I didn’t think this would be something reportable in the news.”
According to Wilson, it isn’t uncommon for the county to “deed over” land to a landowner, who is then required to maintain it in perpetuity. He said he passed the request on to Alameda County’s public works director, who he said told him the road was remote and that he didn’t “want to go take care of it anyway.”
“I don’t think it’s inappropriate for anyone to make an ask of our office,” Wilson said.
Beyond the allegations of unethical behavior, Abreu said that although that final 1,000 feet of road may seem insignificant, it’s a popular recreational spot that requires county stewardship.
“It’s not being used for rave parties at night. It is not a hangout for drug dealers,” Abreu said. “People are walking it every day with their dog and riding bicycles for exercise.”
To cede the road, Abreu argues, would be to give in to wealthy landowners that he believes have tried to restrict public access across the Bay Area. At nearby Mission Peak, a wealthy enclave has worked to restrict parking for one of the trailheads of the popular hike. In 2020, the state of California sued a Silicon Valley billionaire for blocking access to a beach south of Half Moon Bay. In February, the New York Times highlighted that access to hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in the Bay Area and California were restricted by private landowners.
Still, in Wilson’s view, Abreu is motivated more by a personal vendetta against George than serious concern about the road or county ethics.
“It’s very ironic that this yahoo who posted this on Facebook is the same guy who just lost a lawsuit,” Wilson said. “This guy has harassed [George’s] family, flying drones over his property.”
In 2018, George filed for a temporary restraining order against Abreu after the two entered into a conflict on Morrison Canyon Road. According to Abreu, he was flying a drone over George’s property to document the construction of a “banquet hall” he believed required an environmental impact report. George had classified the building as an agricultural barn.
In Abreu’s version of events, George angrily came out of his house and blocked Abreu’s car. In his request for a restraining order, George alleged Abreu initiated physical contact between the two men, which Abreu denies.
George did not respond to requests to comment for this article.
It remains to be seen whether George will have his request granted. The application to cede the 1,000 feet is currently pending review by Alameda County counsel.
“People are going to take whatever they can get. That might not be illegal. But the fact that our county government can’t figure out that this is a hiking-biking-walking trail, that’s really bad,” Abreu said.