Making a ruckus

I watched the Planning Board meeting from Monday night specifically for the item about Point Marina Vista.   I’m not quite sure why I care so much, maybe because I find the building itself interesting or maybe because the neighborhood outrage is dialed up so high, whatever the reason, I watched.

But then found out that the item had been continued.   But the Planning Board let all the folks who had come out speak anyway during oral communications.   Let’s just say the anger over this has not dissipated for the residents that surround the building.

But in listening I did find some of the comments compelling.   Such as the query as to why they decided to open a banquet facility as opposed to a restaurant and the idea that the difference between the two is the a restaurant is almost always staffed and there is a sense of ownership and responsibility to the neighborhood as opposed to a banquet facility which is just a space to lease and there would be no real connection to the neighborhood itself.   I can buy that argument.   A restaurant would add a lot to the neighborhood, a banquet facility, not so much.

Other comments though made me feel a bit uncomfortable.   Like the person who questioned whether this use would be appropriate given that there are so many other facilities nearby (Otaez and Bayside Pavilion) that the banquet facility would be competing against.  While it’s entirely appropriate for the city to set general uses (residential, commercial, industrial) I think it would highly intrusive to tell a potential business owner, “nope, sorry, we have too many of xyz type stores in Alameda, we can’t have another so your use permit is declined.” 

Other things that made me uncomfortable was the speaker who suggested that the backup in the tube from all those cars leaving at the end of the night would be so awful and that the drunken people drinking endless amounts of booze would disrupt the quiet neighborhood.   First of all, the notion that the banquet facility would be used largely by folks from outside of Alameda is probably incorrect.   I would imagine that most people who would be holding events there would be people from Alameda.  

One last thing was the speaker who suggested that if the use permit was to be granted then there should be a “demonstration”  staged which included filling up the parking lot with 200 cars to simulated a very full event (an event that assumes that practically every person that fits into the 250 person capacity building drives their car alone to the event) and that all the folks fill the parking lot to simulate being a loud drunk that had just left an event.  Because all events apparently end in every single person streaming out to the parking lot, drunk, to make a ruckus.

And then there’s the parking, while I totally commend the neighbors for doing their due diligence and performing their own parking counts, according to one of the speakers Monday night there was not one, but two weddings at the Oakland Yacht Club over the weekend.   Which could account for the crowded parking conditions.   But if the use permit is granted, the issue of coordinating events between the Oakland Yacht Club and this facility would probably need to be worked out in order to not overburden the neighborhood itself.    Although if there is a need for overflow parking for events at the Point Marina Vista shouldn’t the Oakland Yacht Club be held to the same standards for events that may take up a considerable amount of parking?   It would only be equitable to do so.

Anyway, the item will be back before the PB in mid-August.

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