Emergency crews this morning capped a gas leak at a vacant building located at the downtown parking lot, near the on First and L streets.
At around 8 a.m. fire crews were sent to the area after a caller reported smelling gas, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Departmen Battalion Chief Jack Neiman-Kimel said.
When firefighters arrived they located the gas leak at a building that previously housed a dry-cleaning business, Neiman-Kimel said.
"The gas meter is gone," he said. "I'm not sure if it was taken, but it is definitely gone."
Firefighters diffused and kept the gas cloud down with water while PG&E worked to gain access to an underground gas line.
The gas leak was capped at 9:40 a.m.
Glad my meter is behing the fence.
The property owners are caught in a twilight zone of being notified by the city in writing they were being condemned back in 2006+- then having to wait for the consummation of that commitment only to find the commitment years later to be dropped. It was reset quickly again last month with the adoption of the "current plan" for the next major parking structure to service downtown Livermore. Several tenants then and now would like to use the property but the property needs a lot of work to use it in any style or grace that would reflect well on the downtown. Making that level of commitment becomes untenable when no tenant is willing to stick with it when they are told the building is apparently under threat of condemnation and will be torn down for a parking structure. The property owners are literally caught in the whipsaw brought about by the failures of the entire redevelopment legalities throughout California, only to then re-emerge under the realities of traditional condemnation law of the right of communities to acquire property for "public use," a process different than redevelopment law. All the parties are hopeful of moving forward as the building has been caught in limbo for nearly 7 years. A photo of the current plan for this site has been uploaded as picture number three above. It'll happen.