900 Parking Spaces, 3X the Height Limit, $8 Million Taxpayer Subsidy

(Edited email from Council Member John Fricke to Emeryville residents Aug. 14)

One prime example of the City Council majority’s genuflection to developers is the ‘Transit Center’ (proposed for the lot just north of Emeryville’s train station).

At the upcoming Council meeting August 18, the Council majority will likely support a project that will:

• Exacerbate traffic congestion
• Vastly exceed the maximum building height allowed by the city’s zoning ordinance
• Funnel millions of dollars in taxpayer money to Wareham Development. (I will miss the meeting due to a family vacation.) (See below for my past email messages about the proposed project.)

Although this proposal has gone through several iterations in the past several years, the developer’s hyperbole hasn’t changed much. Among the developer’s misrepresentations:

The project would result in the clean-up of a toxic site.
Decades ago, the toxic soil was surrounded by a wall and capped. Periodic soil sampling continues to indicate that the toxics are staying put, and therefore pose no harm. The same cannot be said for the risks of removing the toxic soil.

The project will improve public transit.
Not unlike the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes, the developer seems to have finally acknowledged that the ‘Transit Center’ has no transit. The project has thus received a re-branding: it is now called EmeryStation West.

Traffic Congestion

As first proposed, the Transit Center included hundreds of parking spaces next to a street (Horton Street) that is not designed to accommodate such a volume of traffic. The latest proposal includes even more parking spaces. In addition to the proposed office building next to the train station (300 parking spaces), the developer would also construct a parking garage across the street (600 spaces). The city staff report is conspicuously silent on the impact of 900 cars accessing city streets designed for far fewer cars. Horton Street is a bicycle boulevard, and is the last north-south street in Emeryville – running nearly the length of the city – that remains pleasant for bicyclists and pedestrians. 900 cars would surely change that.

Building Height

The current proposed height of 17 stories (160 feet), has changed little since the developer first proposed the transit center and condo tower. The city’s zoning ordinance allows a maximum building height of five stories (50 feet).

In Washington, D.C., lobbyists manage to get special exceptions inserted into legislation to benefit a particular industry or client. So too in Emeryville, where the city council is about to approve a new zoning law that carves out a specific exception for the site of this proposed project.

In the area around the train station, the proposed zoning law provides maximum building heights of seven and five stories. The maximum height is reduced the closer one gets to older residential areas – EXCEPT for the one parcel where Wareham Development intends to construct its 160-foot office building. Here is a map of the proposed maximum building heights (6MB):

http://www.johnfricke.com/DraftGenPlan-MaxBldgHeight.pdf

Often, a developer will justify exceeding the maximum height by saying that anything less will simply “not pencil.” In this case, the developer is both asking for three times the current maximum height, and a multi-million dollar subsidy from the city.

$8 Million Taxayer Subsidy

Wareham Development has received millions in city subsidies, the most recent of which is for a project next to the greenway at Powell:
http://www.johnfricke.com/05-14-09.html

For the proposed project next to the train station, the developer wants an $8.3 million subsidy. The state budget recently approved will require Emeryville to give back millions of dollars to the state. The money will come from the same budget that the city has for granting subsidies to developers. By continuing to grant subsidies to developers, the city council will be forced to reduce funding for projects that would provide concrete benefits to the residents.

About a year and a half ago, the city council debated imposing an impact fee on developers. The money would have been used to pay for infrastructure improvements and public amenities (such as new parks and open space) that would be necessary as more people moved to and worked in Emeryville. The city council majority let this impact fee quietly die, but the longstanding practice of lining the developers’ pockets with city subsidies continues unabated.

John Fricke
1057 43rd Street
Emeryville, CA 94608
510/601-8846
jfricke@JohnFricke.com
www.JohnFricke.com

My past email messages about the Transit Center:

http://www.johnfricke.com/03-09-06.html
http://www.johnfricke.com/03-22-06.html
http://www.johnfricke.com/02-18-07.html
http://www.johnfricke.com/03-05-07.html
http://www.johnfricke.com/03-19-07.html
http://www.johnfricke.com/12-20-07.html
http://www.johnfricke.com/02-02-08.html
http://www.johnfricke.com/01-25-09.html