Alameda Marina Development

[BobJ]

Following up on some previous "remembering" posts in Skip's thread, I was distressed to see this:

Alameda Marina Master Plan

The property is now owned by a developer in San Francisco (Bay West Development).

Having patronized many of the Alameda Marina businesses over the years, I wonder where they will go - also Island Yacht Club. Depending on which of these drawings you look at, the boat yard may still be there (it's not in the drawing with the arrows). Crackerboxes can be thrown up easily but boat yards on San Francisco Bay are irreplaceable.

If you want more information, there's a meeting Wednesday night (11/18) at 7:00 p.m. at IYC.

 

[JohnS]

Well, that's depressing. I knew it was only a matter of time but...

 

[AlanH]

Following up on some previous "remembering" posts, I was distressed to see this:

Alameda Marina Master Plan

The property is now owned by a developer in San Francisco (Bay West Development).

Having patronized many of the Alameda Marina businesses over the years, I wonder where they will go - also Island Yacht Club. Depending on which of these drawings you look at, the boat yard may still be there (it's not in the drawing with the arrows). Crackerboxes can be thrown up easily but boat yards on San Francisco Bay are irreplaceable.

If you want more information, there's a meeting Wednesday night (11/18) at 7:00 p.m. at IYC.

WHAT??????????????

When was this conceived? I had no idea. None. Zero. Zilch.

 

[BobJ]

From what I can tell, something was filed all the way back in 2012. Perhaps with Svend's passing earlier this year it got moved to the front burner?

 

[AlanH]

From what I can tell, something was filed all the way back in 2012. Perhaps with Svend's passing earlier this year it got moved to the front burner?

I was just down there this weekend, for obvious reasons. I have to say that the % occupancy of the <30 foot berths is pretty grim. Also, there are fewer boats in the dry storage areas than there were, say 10 years ago. However, the place is hardly moribund.

I suppose the developers figure they can make a mint selling condos and townhomes...which is probably true.

I hate to be self-centered about this, but I just looked. The Brickyard Cove "big" hoist takes 4400 pounds, which covers my butt... but not by a whole lot, and I think the yard is pretty full. I forsee an F-150 pickup in my future. UGH.

If Svendsens goes there is literally no other place to buy gear but West Marine....and online.

 

[sleddog]

Alan,
Congrats on your new boat!!! We are all happy for you. Hoping for a pronounceable name
I have a 2000 Ford Expedition that would pull your new vessel with ease...I'd be glad to loan, share, rent, or sell depending on needs.
~sleddog

 

[AlanH]

Thanks, Skip!

See, the deal with Joan was to buy a BOAT....not a boat and a truck. Ah, well. It will probably be at least a year before anything even starts to happen at Alameda Marina. I will deal with it, then. The Brickyard Cove hoist can handle this thing, in any case.

BTW, the Ideal 18's are fun boats. They'd be very tactical to race, sort of like a more modern Mercury. I sailed one for most of an afternoon about 4-5 years ago on a trip to Michigan.

 

[solosailor]

The Brickyard Cove "big" hoist takes 4400 pounds

I thought it was a 3ton? I know of a boat that launches there that is over 4400. If it's not 3 ton then my boat can only be wet sailed in the future.

 

[BobJ]

It's rated as a 3-ton but they limit it to 4,400#. They're also rigid about beam - yours and mine are too wide to store in the parking area (that boat you're thinking about is right at the weight limit and lives at his shop). It's a much busier hoist than what you're used to and maneuvering is difficult on that pier. The good side is they have tractors so once the boat is there you could get along without a tow vehicle.

I think this is a business opportunity for someone. Do-it-yourself dry-sailing is a great deal (I did it for 3-4 years). But a 2-ton hoist isn't enough. We need to find space that's nowhere near getting gentrified (I've wondered about the Richmond channel area), buy a couple of three-ton hoists and set it up. Single-point lift only (slings are too dangerous for self-use by tipsy racers). Probably one paid operator to keep things running smoothly and organize the race-day chaos. Mega legal releases, insurance, etc.

 

[solosailor]

(that boat you're thinking about is right at the weight limit and lives at his shop)

Not that one.

 

[solosailor]

They're also rigid about beam - yours and mine are too wide to store in the parking area

Wow, so not a single dry storage option for me in the future.....

 

[BobJ]

Go tonight and state your case. Maybe they'll change out one of the smaller hoists near the harbormaster's office and provide more storage area. If they got rid of all the RV's (which have many other storage options) they might be able to accommodate just the boats.

One of the reasons I put my boat back in the water was the no-options concern. A couple times the big hoist was acting up and I almost missed races.

 

[AlanH]

I actually looked into what a 3-ton, freestanding, 180-degree turning jib crane costs and the answer is about $5-6K. Then you add in the actual hoist, 3-ton, electric, three phase (420 volt) with a 20 foot drop which is about $4200. Of course you have to buy a mess of big bolts and some steel bar to anchor the thing in a substantial concrete foundation. Now throw in about $1,000 shipping.

I guesstimate that the all-up cost of all the "stuff" to put in a freestanding, functional 3 ton boat hoist is about $12,000 +/- " a lot". Then you have to pay to get it certified by the County, and I have no idea what that costs.

That's a lot of money but it's not a completely stupid and ridiculous amount of money. It's possible that another Marina would consider doing it if they knew for drop-dead certain that they'd have 20 boats paying $100 a month for dry storage and access to the hoist.

20 boats X $100/month X 12 months = $24,000

So the hoist would pay for itself in about 6 months. If you figure that it costs $10K in labor to put the thing in, and paying for the permits with the City and County, then in a year, it would be making a profit.

Of course there's maintenance. The thing to do is to get a 180 degree hoist, based on a "wall hoist" model, but mounted on a free mast. If the arm is manually moved by a winch and cable you don't have to deal with the extremely expensive and finicky electric motors and conducting surfaces that the Alameda 2 and 3 ton hoists have.

I think the issue would be finding a more-or-less Central Bay marina with the parking and storage space available. Municipal Marinas have to deal with so much bureuocracy that it's probably not worth it. That means private marinas' I had in mind Ballena Bay, because they actually do have a parking area that would probably hold 100 boats and trailers, but I hear that the marina is kind of a dump, now.

 

[AlanH]

The other thing that occurred to me was that maybe the City of Alameda would go for putting in a hoist somewhere on Alameda Point...maybe near the Encinal boat ramp. There's acres and acres of parking there, already. BTW, the Encinal Boat ramp is over by the Hornet. There used to be another boat ramp over there and some slips, maybe about 20. Satellite views show that there's still a floating dock, but it's not connected to the land by a ramp any more.

Also, the developer might be convinced that it's worth his while ... and $20,000.... to put in a big hoist somewhere nearby to get the boaters off his back.

 

[pogen]

The new owners of the condos they are likely to build are probably going to want more parking spaces for their own cars than boat parking. Or just throw up a few more condos and go with the zone legal minimum of spaces per sq ft of residential space...

 

[BobJ]

Yes, developers beg and plead for the absolute minimum parking spaces the city will allow, then they build tiny ones.

I'm pretty serious about this self-use hoist business idea. It keeps sailing (more) affordable, it's green (no bottom paint, diver cleanings, etc.) and it targets the size of boats we tend to have. The 2-ton hoist market is served pretty well around here; the need is for one notch up from that, but still self-use.

Let's keep talking about it.

 

[AlanH]

COPIED from Pressure Drop:

Hi, there were two meetings today at the Marina. I went to the Community meeting this evening, but heard from two tenants of the marina about how the noontime "tenants" meeting went. Both of the business tenants said that the community meeting was quite "friendly" whereas the business tenants met with the actual president of the development company. Word from the two guys I talked to was that the developer told them he's coming in with cranes, wrecking balls and bulldozers in 18-24 months and they all have to be out.

So worst case, there's the timeline.

He apparently told everybody that he had no choice, the City zoning specified that the site HAD to be "mixed use" housing. Apparently the tenor of the meeting....and remember, I wasn't there, I'm just passing this on secondhand....was along the lines of "I own the place, I'm flattening it, I don't have a choice, get the fuck out." More about zoning later.

The "Community Meeting" at 7:00 was very different. A panel from the development company plus a woman who served as "moderator"....probably works for the company... tried to make the point that this was the very first discussion about what the community wanted. There was a lot of talk about "waterfront access", the Bay Trail, parking and public transit, and laughably... "honoring the heritage of the site". They then went on to present us all with a series of photographs/powerpoint slides of the proposed site layout.

I want to be crystal-clear about this. There is NO provision. None. Zero for any marine industry on the site. OK, maybe a kayak retailer. MAYBE...maybe...a sail loft. Maybe. But dry storage? No. Metalwork? No. Hoists? No. Haulout facilities of any kind? No. The picture on their website was not presented to us. I REPEAT, the site layouts shown us had NO marine industry on the site, it was entirely housing and "mixed retail".


It's clear that they want to save the boat slips because they're picturesque. They will probably upgrade them.

The team presented us with four or five 'optional" layouts of the site to choose from. I think I can say without exaggeration that I and everybody else was shocked. All of the layouts differed only in where the "townhouses" were placed (around the inlet by the 3 ton hoist) and where the high-density apartments were placed. --Or was it single-family homes? It's ALL going to be housing. The streets that come down to Blanding will be extended into the boatyard with little welcoming arches over them so that the community feels welcome. There will be little 40 x 40 mini-parks between the condo clusters that qualify as "open space". The Bay Trail will be extended through the area.....never mind that it stops dead at the south end of the facility because the Naval Reserve site is there.

That's their vision. Their questionnaire "did we strongly agree, slightly agree, strongly disagree...etc. etc" with the various pictures they put up showed a massive, fundamental disconnect between the academic "urban planner" mindset, and actual reality. I think you all would be horrified if you saw what they were proposing. In all cases at least 75-80% of the attending people "Strongly Disagreed" with the appropriateness of ALL the housing pictures they showed us. ALL of them. Without fail.

A lot of local people spoke out about traffic issues. It was pointed out that 5,000 more homes were going in at Alameda Point. There are other developments going on as well. I hear that traffic in the Posey Tube is absolutely insane for a two-plus hour period during every rush hour.

At any rate, two things became obvious:

1. the developing companies "team" that came to the community meeting is the velvet glove around the iron hand. They were there to acquaint people with what they believe WILL go in, and to make us feel that the community has a hand in the decision process. We don't, but they want to make us feel like that. Well...that's their job. I think they failed.

2. There's a serious, enormous, grossly obvious disconnect between the developers staff and their "vision" of practically everything, and what the community and marina people at the meeting want to see. One look at the urban planning buzzword orgy on the developers website should show that.

Finally... what to do about it?

 

[AlanH]

Finally... what to do about it?

What's apparently driving the housing issue is zoning. In 2012 the whole north shore of Alameda and Alameda Point was rezoned for "mixed use housing". You can't have "light industry"...meaning boatyards and metalworking shops in "Mixed use housing". At least, that's what we were told. You CAN have "light retail"...starbucks, for example. And a couple of tony waterfront restaurants.

Well, the developer has only one thing on his mind....Make Money. He can make money by razing all of the Alameda Marina and replacing it with "mixed use housing" and "light retail". What's driving this is zoning. ZONING.

The former vice-mayor of the City of Alameda was there. He pointed out that the PR committee for the development company had quietly neglected to tell us that SOME of the property at the Alameda Marina is actually OWNED BY THE CITY. He also pointed out to all of us that Zoning laws and regulations are not handed down by Zeus from the mountaintop. They can be changed. So it became obvious that the way to get this stopped is not to go to the developer, but instead, go to the Planning Commission, Planning office and City Council for the City of Alameda.

The developer could give a shit about the Marina or the place it occupies in the boating community. He's there to Make Money. He will Make A Shitload Of Money if he replaces the admittedly funky Alameda Marina with another cookie-cutter set of apartments and townhomes planned by some architecture wonks. However, he can make a slightly Smaller Shitload of Money by doing a big redesign of the Marina, consolidating but not removing services, kicking out the RV storage and adding some buildings.

But he's not going to do that UNLESS THE ZONING FORCES HIM TO.

So friends, if you don't want to see the Alameda Marina bite the dust, you need to tell the City of Alameda what you think...loudly, and often. And RIGHT NOW. Apathy, giving up and rolling over will get you nothing but a townhouse development that you can't afford to buy into.

Alan

 

[AlanH]

The guys from the development company appeared to be somewhat taken aback by the intensity of the objections, but I'm cynical and I suspect it was all an act. The woman who served as moderator did her job well...kudos to her for moderating the meeting, but it's obvious that she's employed by the development company. She too, could give a shit about the marina or its services.

I think that they accidentally let slip that zoning was driving the process to be specifically ALL housing. Then again, that might have been an act. Whether it's an act or not, the truth is that if the City changes the zoning....which they might not be able to do, the Developer might sue the City if they do that....but if they do it, then the Way To Make Shitloads Of Money would change, and that's what we want.

 

[AlanH]

There is a POSSIBILITY....the woman from the company brought it up with me several times .. that maybe a bunch of the services that the Alameda Marina offers could be moved elsewhere.

She's clueless of course, it's just her "company line" she has NO idea what she's talking about...no clue what's required, and completely ignoring the permitting process....

But it HAS occurred to me that a "Hoist and Store" business at Alameda Point might work. There would have to be a contract with the City, and a long-term lease, and those aren't so easy to pull off. You'd also have to get permits from the BCDC to fill part of the shoreline to make a seawall appropriate for a hoist launch, at least in the area I'm thinking of.