Rip Rap

Why is the post called “Rip Rap”?  Because I have now seen the term twice for two projects and had no idea what it was, so had to look it up on trusty Wikipedia.    Plus it’s just a pretty neat phrase.

Tonight, on the Planning Board agenda are some items of interest concerning Alameda Landing.  As reported by the Alameda Journal:

…In January, the city approved Catellus’ 77-acre housing and commercial development at the site of a former Navy supply center along the Estuary. As part of the development, Catellus planned a public promenade on 12 acres along the water adjacent to the headquarters of energy-snack maker Clif Bar.

Due to the infrastructure problems, Catellus now has come back with a new plan for that area that will change pieces of the overall design and reduce publicly accessible open space by about an acre. The original plan approved by the city had required no less than eight acres of open space.

…

The problem on the northern waterfront is that as many as three-fourths of the 7,116 pilings holding up the wharf along the water’s edge are corroded. In addition, the soils and embankments under the wharf need seismic retrofitting…

Surprise surprise, infrastructure problems on former military property.  No way!   So what the article goes on to say though that Clif Bar, remember, they are getting one of the rehabilitated warehouses next to the water, will still get their rehabilitated warehouse on the water.  But the warehouse to the west of the Clif Bar one will be torn down.   The text in the staff report mentions that the intent is to set back the second building from the water to increase the amount of public space in front of NCBB (Not Clif Bar’s Building).   Staff say that there is now an increase in public open space on this section from the orginial 44 feet from building to water to 100 feet from building to water.   All fine and good, but as other people mentioned during those workshops if there is nothing on that side of the development to keep activity “alive” during non business hours, the open space will be useless for evenings and weekends.   And while the Clif Bar retail store and restaurant are a good start, it’s going to take more than that to keep that end of the Landing jumping.  It might be nice to include, in the new building, small retail space for a cafe or something like that as the Miracle League is planned for that end of Alameda Landing.   It could be very useful for folks during practice or games…but I digress.

The biggest change however, should please some folks who complained about lack of access to the water itself.  Because Catellus doesn’t want to shell out the $30 - 35 million (who can blame them?) to fix the supports in order to build what they had approved initially, they have instead proposed a secondary level that the public will walk down to to be closer to the water, it will be 40 feet wide and will ostensibly provide better access to docks for kayakers or boats.   That is, if docks are included in the plan.

So, we’re going from 11.9 acres of open space to 10.8 acres, losing about 1.1 acres…although can you technically “lose” something if you never had it in the first place?   The staff report is quick to point out that a minimum of  8 acres is required under the master plan.   Of course we could all be extra wowed or extra disappointed if we only had some drawings to look at.   Evidently, even though the text references renderings that would give one a better idea of what we can expect, there are none to be found on the website as part of the packet.  Of course there is a tiny note on the website that says:

*Site Plans are available for review in the Planning & Building Department during regular business hours.

Yeah, but who has time to get down to the Planning & Building Department during regular business hours?  So now, I have to wait until the meeting tonight (or watch it tomorrow morning) and squint at the tiny little picture that is the Web feed and then try to make out what is on the overhead projector — which is almost black on the television.   And I’m complaining about this because I know that most people are going to be interested in what the agenda item previous to the waterfront change should look like, in drawing format.   Yes, Catellus is request design approval for the retail center portion of the project.   Which includes “large format stores” like building A, which if I remember correctly will be at corner of 5th Street and Tinker/Stargell.   They say that have tweaked a lot of the plans based on feedback from the Planning Board, but how would we all know because there are no fricken renderings.   And although I have a great imagination, I just can’t visualize what providing “more fluctuation in the envelope” means.  Maybe that’s just my own personal deficit.  So big night tonight for Alameda Landing watchers.