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?
