What’s new pussycat?

Based on all the community meetings and the survey on line, City Staff has  analyzed all the responses which will be presented in a enormous report the first week of April.   However they did provide a digest of major findings in this update which will be presented for comment to the Planning Board on Monday.

Staff broke down the major categories and then what most people were in agreement with one another and what they disagreed on.   So here is my digest of their digest.

Land Use

Agreement: redevelopment and reuse should be a variety of mixed use, transit oriented districts that provide jobs, affordable housing, and passive and active public open spaces and facilities.   Strong support of job  creation.  Walkable neighborhoods.  Also understanding that amount of development will dictate traffic impacts as well as producing revenue for infrastructure, historic preservation, and public facilities.

Differences: no agreement on the number of housing units appropriate for the site.

Building Types

Agreement: architecturally should reflect Alameda’s existing neighborhood.  Steer away from “homogeneous” suburban style developments.  Walkable neighborhoods.  Variety of housing types (aka not Measure A compliant).

Differences: Building heights.

Recreation, Parks and Open Space

Agreement: Open space framework in PDC supported.  Diversity of park types.  Strong interest in nature and conservation areas.  Partnerships with regional and national agencies for maintenance.

If trade off need to be made passive parks are preferred over active recreation spaces.

Differences: conflict as to which recreation facilities are more important

Historic Preservation

Agreement: Administrative Core sub area, Residential sub area, and hangars most important to retain. “Big Whites”, the theatre, the Naval Air Museum,
the Hornet Museum and the Flight Control Tower popular as well.

Differences: how many buildings to be preserved and how to allocate resources for preservation

Transportation and Mobility

Agreement:  Concern with peak commute time at tube highest priority.  Most important solution to consider is faster service to BART.  Pedestrian and bicycle improvements should be integral design element to encourage alternative transportation methods.

Differences: some skeptical that non-auto related transportation is effective.

Community Benefits and Facilities

Agreement: Highest priority is passive recreation facilities, affordable housing, and historic preservation.  People would prefer to delay new ferry terminal in Seaplane Lagoon, marina facilities, branch library, and active sports facilities.

Differences: difference on what certain constituent groups feel is important, essentially staff is saying that if trade-offs need to be made, there is going to be big debates in the community about what goes in first.

Honestly though, is there anything there that anyone is really surprised about?   I don’t think I learned anything new necessarily and you know that when the findings don’t agree with what some people think 100% they are going to complain that this doesn’t represent what the “true” community actually thinks or believes should happen at Alameda Point.

I’ll point out that I actually wrote in under the building types section that I thought that Alameda Point should have its own unique look and not try to mimic traditional Alameda architecture in every single place.   Lots of truly historic neighborhoods in historic cities have more modern buildings that live side-b- side historic ones and it works out beautifully.   It’s less about the period or type of architecture and more about the quality of the architecture.   But whatev.

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