Esplanade appeal
At tonight’s City Council meeting on the agenda is an appeal by some Harbor Bay/Bay Farm residents of a commercial development to build office buildings along the shoreline near the ferry building. According to the Alameda Journal article, the project, named the Esplanade, will be ten buildings housing four businesses. What I actually find interesting about this project is that the units will be commercial condos where the units will actually be for sale, rather than for lease, to smaller businesses.
Personally I found the quote in the newspaper from one of the appellants a little strange:
…”It’s the entrance to Harbor Bay from the ferry,” Graber said Wednesday. “It’s a gateway to Alameda. It should showcase Alameda at its best.”…
I’m not sure who Alameda is being showcased for, but it would seem as though a vacant lot already zoned for commercial or industrial development nearby the ferry building which could reduce people driving to Alameda and perhaps take the ferry instead would be a pretty good spot for a development. After all, everyone is saying how we need more jobs to be created in Alameda and the only way to do that is to bring more businesses, right?
It would be interesting to see if any of the appellants (and some of the Council members) would have read through the legal analysis (in the packet, starts on page 13 of the reader) regarding the appeal prior to tonight’s meeting. It gives a number of reasons why the appeal should be rejected, I don’t know if it’s worth reading if you don’t care whether the project gets built or not, but if someone is going to cry out that the Planning Board and/or City Council is circumventing the will of the people, you might want to give it a read see first.
Here’s something that’s a little weird about the packet, some of the constituent letters asking for project denial are not for this project, but rather for the Ron Cowen 104 home development one. There are some opposing this development starting on page 54 of the reader. The only reason I can think that the other letters were included was to show that some residents of Bay Farm Island want commercial buildings to be built where commercial buildings have been zoned.
Don’t forget that the today is Tax Day, make sure that you get your forms mailed off if you have not already done so already.
Weekend canvasser came to door requesting sign protest building said buildings. Said they would block bay view. Asked if commercial area zoned commercial, answer yes. Goodbye said I.
Comment by Jack Richard — April 15, 2008 @ 8:17 am
Did they think it was going to be an empty field forever?
Comment by Jack B — April 15, 2008 @ 8:47 am
“empty fields forever”, insn’t that a beatles song
Comment by Jack Richard — April 15, 2008 @ 8:50 am
There are some reasonable concerns - PB seems to have OK’d less than adequate parking for “potential” occupancy which will cause drivers to use up the parking lot in the ferry parking lot.
Personally I like the 2-story plan but wonder how closely packed the buildings are, and if sufficient parking could be required that will not interfere with truck drivers trying to back into the loading docks.
Noise, truck traffic, potential occupancy, parking, lack of traffic studies, EIR, are all legitimate concerns. Thorough EIR should be required for all major new construction, especially right on our recreational waterfront.
If Alameda wants to more than mouth noise about getting people out of cars, the city should be trying to expand that parking lot for the ferry. This is adjacent to a much used shorefront park. An additional lunch spot is needed out there for all those workers in the business parks, but that too will require additional parking.
Comment by David Kirwin — April 15, 2008 @ 11:00 am
Ferry to Esplanade sounds great on paper.
Then the people who work there will realize THERE IS NO PLACE TO GET LUNCH AT HARBOR BAY BUSINESS PARK.
So then they will drive their cars to work. Maybe they will park in the City Center garage though!
Comment by Edmundo Delmundo — April 15, 2008 @ 11:25 am