Edited version of email message from Council Member John Fricke, sent to residents Thursday, May 14
At the upcoming City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 20, the Council is poised to grant $2.5 million in taxpayer money to a developer (Wareham Development) to construct a 58-foot office building on the northeast corner of Hollis and Powell streets (next to the Elevation 22 residential complex).
I will vote no because:
(1) we should stop giving millions of dollars in taxpayer money to developers
(2) the project violates the city’s zoning ordinance (the developer is asking to exceed the height limit)
(3) an appeal filed by residents of Elevation 22 objecting to the project is still pending
(4) the project will not be required to adopt policies that would reduce the use of single-occupant vehicles
Elevation 22 residents object to the planning commission’s approval of the project on a number of grounds, including the excessive height of the proposed building. Residents are also concerned about noise expected from equipment on the roof of the building (they have complained of incessant noise coming from the roof of an existing office building across the street that was constructed by the same developer).
The city staff report implies that if the city doesn’t grant Wareham millions of dollars in subsidies, the project won’t happen. The City Council majority embraces this assumption. This project is yet another example of the Council granting millions in taxpayer money without demanding any concrete benefits in return.
I believe the developer would construct the project without the subsidy. However, if Wareham decides it will not do the project without the subsidy, then we should wait until the market improves — and see what happens. Once the economy recovers, the project can likely occur without a subsidy.
(The staff report on this project is not yet available on the city’s website. But whenever its posted, one can access staff reports at
http://www.ci.emeryville.ca.us/media/ )
Whenever new development projects seek City Council approval, I call for a condition of approval that the project charge for parking, commonly called unbundled parking. I also seek to require that each resident and/or employee associated with the project receive a free AC Transit bus pass. Bulk passes can be purchased for far less than the cost of one bus pass. These and other policies (such as requiring car-share cars) seek to reduce single-occupant vehicle use and encourage public transit use, bicycling, and walking. None of the other Council members has supported these conditions, including for the project to be considered on Tuesday.
I receive many responses to my broadcast email messages. Some of the responses I receive seem to be addressed to a larger audience. I don’t have a blog on my web page that can receive such messages, but I’m trying something new with this message.
By clicking on the “comment” link at the end of this story, you can post your comment for others to read.
Speaking of reducing single-occupant vehicles . . .
Happy Bike to Work Day!
www.johnfricke.com/BikeToWorkDay14may2009a.jpg
www.johnfricke.com/BikeToWorkDay14may2009b.jpg
The woman on the right is none other than Alameda County’s Bike Commuter of the Year, Laura McCamy! Laura lives in Emeryville. Here’s more information about Laura:
http://btwd.bayareabikes.org/node/102
Best,
John
John Fricke
1057 43rd Street
Emeryville, CA 94608
510/601-8846
jfricke@JohnFricke.com
This is an absolute disgrace. Nora Davis, Dick Kassis Ruth Atkin and Ken Bukowski deserve an Enron/AIG/National Bankers Association award for swindling the taxpayers.
Their leadership philosophy and vision for our city harkens back to that of a certain U.S. Army Major during the Vietnam War: “It bacame necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.”
In their eyes, the residents of Emeryville are the Viet-Cong, and treated as such.
Not again! Everytime we turn around the Council is giving another few millions of our dollars to developers. Man, these guys really have a swingin’ deal worked out here. No wonder why they love this town so much.
Good for Elevation 22 residents for speaking up for themselves. I really do wish them good luck, as they are standing up for the majority of the residents on this side of town.
I do wish them the best.
However, after living here for so long I understand that you can’t beat city hall! nor the construction industry.
Miracles do happen sometimes! Go forth Elevation 22 residents!
Oh, joy. The city of Emeryville is lifting up their skirt once again. Ugh, I thought we needed to watch our ¢.
I for one am definitely going to be at next Tuesday’s Council meeting (May 19th) and would encourage anyone else in Emeryville with an opinion on the matter to show up, as well! The council has to listen if there’s enough of us incensed voters there.
The subsidy is not the only disgrace. The refusal to adopt any of John Fricke’s sensible suggestions for requiring new buildings to reduce single-occupant car use is nothing short of criminal.
Emeryville passed a resolution to reduce greenhouse gases by 2025 (I can’t remember by what %). Meeting that goal will require taking action – which the city council (except for Fricke) seems completely unwilling to take. They seem to think the best way to reduce greenhouse gases is to move traffic faster, so cars don’t idle in Emeryville. If Emeryville were really serious about a change down the road, we would have to start now, with the planning process, to build our city differently. It’s much harder to make changes once the projects are built.
We really do need to have someone from the Municipal Officials for Redvelopment Reform (MORR)enlighten the citizens of Emeryville about the whole Redevelopment Agency.
Any chance of organizing a public meeting?
The citizens of Emeryville’s total indebtedness in 2005-6 was $340,053,271. That was $41,164 each Emeryvillite owed. I just wonder what it is now?
NOTE THAT ALL COMMENTS ARE ANONYMOUS! Have other’s of you recieved ‘arm-twisting’ personal email or calls from City Council
members feeling a voter’s wrath? I have = the infamous K.B. It’s a hey-day for “Developers” with this gang of FOUR, and I abhor their constant violation of the Zoning Codes
Why the hell do we even have a General Plan and a zoning ordinance if these four council members ALWAYS grant favored developers a pass? This really stinks. I think we should mount a campaign to get rid of our General Plan and our Zoning Ordinance, at least everyone would be operating on a level playing field and there wouldn’t be this rampant corruption.
How many more millions is Rich Robbins going to cajole out of these hack politicians? Geez!
I’m new to Emeryville and I must say I’m kind of shocked at these allegations. I’d like to find out more but this doesn’t seem like a good way to develop our town. There’s no need to be so blatent and pushy. It looks like the city council should listen to the citizens a little before moving forward with this project. I’d like to see if this is all true.
I’m also reletively new to Emeryville. I moved here because I like the small town feel and I like a lot of the new development. I do think we’ve put too much emphasis on shopping malls though. It would be nice if we could get less car-centric development.
I don’t know enough about these subsidies for these developers but if they help us get what we want then it should be OK. I can’t really speak to the amount of subsidy in this case (it seems rather large). I don’t like the feelings of impropriety the subsidies bring.
The Council should take this under consideration: Is this casting at least an appearance of unfair reward of the public’s money?
So what’s new? All this is no worse than what happens with most large development proposals in Emeryville. We should be used to it by now; this is the way it’s done my dear. Is this cynical and depraved? Yes, but anyone paying attention to this council has always known to not listen to what they say but instead to watch what they do.
Thanks for following up on this. I agree with you that this is an innappropriate use of funds to support a project that does not improve the quality of life for residents. Studies show that quality of life is the ultimate characteristic of a thriving city in both health and economy.
This is the same developer that did the ‘Terraces’ condo project along side the Powell Street overpass. The condo owners had to sue him since their condos were build in such a slip shod fashion they leaked everytime it rained and mold problems beset the building. Many of the owners had to move out of the building for years. The East Bay Express did a major front page expose on it. Why are we rewarding this guy and letting him to continue this in Emeryville? He was tested and he came up lacking. We should at least ask for a better quality development by a more ethical developer.
I like your ideas for reducing car dependency in Emeryville. I think these sort of measures should now be required of all new development. Emeryville is reaching the tipping point where inviting more cars into our environment is starting to seriously erode the quality of life for everybody. People don’t want to live in towns wholly thrown over to cars…they’re not nice places to live. Once you reach the saturation point, home values start to go down and there goes the whole ball game. I think we’re at a critical juncture and I don’t think we should put this business as usual style to the ultimate test.
I don’t like the fact that there’s such a cozy relationship between Wareham Development and City Hall for so many years. We need a greater diversity of developers here, if for no other reason that with a greater choice, we might get better development. It would be cool if the residents were offered a choice for each large redevelopment project. Why always settle for the same corporate development vision?
The time has come for citizens of Emeryville to rise up, collect signatures and put a city-wide referendum on the ballot to DISSOLVE THE EMERYVILLE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY.
Can Emeryville residents suite the four city council members for keep giving $$$$$$$ to the developers?
Could we not start a position to oust the following members of this city counsel?
Nora Davis
Dick Kassis
Ruth Atkin
Ken Bukowski
Also, what about putting term limits on these jokers? They have been on the council for decades and fresh blood and new perspectives would be good.
What about the height variance the developer is requesting? Why should we grant this? Just because he wants it?
Here here for term limits! What a great idea. It is sooo past time for some new ideas out of City Hall. Dick Kassis had his first term in the 1970’s! Nora Davis and Ken Bukowski are from the 1980’s. They’re so old, Council meetings are starting to look like meetings of the Soviet Politboro. Ken sometimes forgets to put in his teeth. These people have had their turn. Let’s let someone else give it a go.
LOL! One time at a meeting I saw Nora and Ruth both nodding off to sleep.
Some of you were not able to go to last night’s council meeting, but were hoping that we could give a summary of it. Here ya go!
Here is what the city staff recommends:
$1.75 million in “financial assistance” to Wareham; $735K for Greenway Expansion; and $1 million from the Shellmound Project Capital Fund to CIP Project No. 09481015. All of the council save John Fricke voted “yes” on this. Ken Bukowski abstained b/c he’s said angry things about Wareham Development in the past. I’m not sure why council members Ruth Atkins and Dick Kassis wouldn’t have been required to also abstain; they’ve received election campaign funds from Wareham.
Here is a recap of the public comments:
The residents of Elevation 22–which is located right next to the proposed development–are requesting noise abatement in exchange for the approval of the project. They also want there to be an assigned contact person at Wareham to talk to with complaints.
Several (8) Emeryville residents spoke to the fact that the council keeps giving these huge subsidies to rich developers, and asked “why?” And this project gets to have a variance from our height laws–again, “why?” And some speakers didn’t like the warehouse they intend to tear down referred to as blight, and found the proposed building to be yet another ugly, modernistic office building. One speaker suggests that the council get the advice of some of the architects who work in Emeryville to school them on design. Besides the “usual suspects” who often come to council meetings to speak up, we did hear from some new folks RULE (Residents United for a Livable Emeryville), among them a Pacific Park Plaza resident.
The council’s response to the public comments were haughty, angry, and along the lines of “you people are wrong and have been duped.” Dick Kassis would like us to call this $ “redevelopment investment,” not “huge subsidies to rich developers.” He got into a squabble with John Fricke about whether the city still needs to make these kinds of public investments; as John always argues “Emeryville has arrived as a very desirable location for businesses, and we don’t need to keep giving the store away.” John said that 20 years ago when Emeryville started this redevelopment, the council was saying “be patient, tax $$ will come from this.” It’s Dick’s contention that Emeryville has to keep funding new developments in order to maintain our current level of services. But, where does he think we’re going to put these new developments?No wonder we have to build to the skies. How is this model of development sustainable into our future?
I watched it all on TV. Boy, these council members are sure of themselves. They don’t leave even a smidgeon for any citizen questioning! They really launched into those who did have the guts to ask about the wisdom of this government ‘welfare for the rich’ scheme they got working.
Unless you want to be called nasty names, I don’t recommend speaking out at any Emeryville City Council meeting!
Thanks to John Fricke for standing up for us!
Solution to the problem lies at this link…
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/recall.pdf
Dick Kassis
Ken Bukowski
Ruth Atkin
Nora Davis
It was really shamefull how they dressed down all those who spoke out offering different visions. This is not they way it’s supposed to be at any city hall. The people are supposed to be able to comment freely without fear of retribution. It’s not supposed to be “my way or the highway” from city council people. What gives?
John, I believe you have read Joseph Coomes’ book ‘Redevelopment in California.’ I think you cited it in one of your past incendiary emails. I’m surprised that you could read this book and still have such a limited knowledge of redevelopment. I expect that most people who post here do not have a strong knowledge of how redevelopment works in California, however, as an elected official and someone who’s duty it is to oversee redevelopment spending and improve the condition of our city, I expect more from you. You consistently take an extremely right-wing position when it comes to redevelopment projects. Redevelopment is an amazing tool that we have in California. I know you understand that redevelopment projects create tax increment which finances other projects–both pubic and private–in the redevelopment district. Spending all the redevelopment funds on public projects would bankrupt the Agency and is not a sustainable financial strategy. There is no successful redevelopment agency in this state that operates that way. Funds must be invested in both public and private projects so that new funds are generated and so that property tax revenues will continue to be high beyond the lifespan of the Redevelopment Area. Also keep in mind that there are a substantial number of people in this town that moved here becasue of the quality of the redevelopment projects that have been built and continue to be built. This is a substantial portion of you constituency. Also I agree that there could be additional amenities included in the project, since the Redevelopment Agency is providing financing, the Agency would need to pay for those amenities beyond the current financing. You have to ask the question, “Is what we would get worth it?” Also, conditions cannot be imposed which cause the project not to pencil. You should consider taking a real estate economics class to gain a better understanding of these things. Especially in the current market, it is very important to understand what will pencil becasue not very much does anymore. I’m surprised this project is feasible with only $1.75 million. That’s pretty amazing considering that the office market is in the toilet. Spending this money now will have great benefit to the Agency. The Disposition and Development Agreement which the Agency negotiates with the developer has many conditions and benefits to the Agency. This is partly what the $1.75 million gets the Agency. I don’t know what the DDA contains, but I guarantee that there are benefits to the Agency that would not be possible in a project that was not using redevelopment funds.
To the long winded poster above. Redevelopment is one thing, but the council to act arrogant and rude to those in the community is completely wrong.
Also, the fact that the city continues to bend so many rules in favor of several developers is also wrong.
I heard someone once say that the developers are in the back pocket of the council members. Kassis said he resented that statement, but yet come election time his pocket is always open wide for money from the developers.
It is time that these one sided, arrogant, “life time” council members go into full time retirement or find somewhere else to recharge their egos.
Redevelopment is such an “amazing tool” that it has placed Emeryville residents, the “benificiaries” of redevelopment on a grand scale, in such high debt that we now rate number three staewide on a per capita bassis. Like the Homestead Act before it, Redevelopment law has been a boon to the wealthy and well connected at the expense of those it intended to help.
As for calling Fricke “right-wing”, that’s a slick trick there guy. I don’t think it’ll work though, it just makes you look totally partizan. You really ought to consider using less obvious tactics when trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes
The May 21 guy says “It won’t pencil” …it seems like I’ve heard that before in this town. Something about how we can never get any good development, the kind of development befitting our envious geographical location. This odd phrase is invoked at the same particular point in the “negotiations” between the City and the developer.
Now we hear it again from this strange masochistic fellow with a “kick me” sign on his back. There is an almost christian puritanical ethos at play here….”Oh lord, we’re not worthy”
Dick Kassis and Nora Davis are OUTRAGED Fricke is using the word ‘subsidy’ to discribe this government give away to the developers they keep doing. They want some other word used…some word less discriptive.
It’s almost like they are embarrased by the idea that people might see the actuality of what they do.
Someone needs to “outrage” kASSis and Davis right out of office.
The guy that asked ‘why are these council members continually being re-elected’ deserves a response. All I can say is the forces of greed and venality are lurking always. Laziness on the part of ordinary citizens unleashes the destructive elements. This is how they thrive. Ultimately, we get what we deserve.