I don’t know where the West County Times got the headline for this story, “Concern for nurseries stands in way of project,” but they should have listed it, “Project gets in way of preserving history.” See Miraflores EIR Scoping Meeting September 26, 2007, September 13, 2007.

·  RICHMOND: Japanese-American greenhouses among items public can address related to housing proposalBy Todd Perlman

STAFF WRITER
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:09/25/2007 03:03:49 AM PDT

Richmond is awash in gems of history, some easier to spot than others.

Interstate 80 offers perhaps the best glimpse of one such find: a cluster of 40 or so greenhouses and other structures, largely hidden from view at street level, that are all that remain of a string of family-run Japanese-American nurseries dating to the early 20th century.

Bounded by I-80, BART tracks, Wall Avenue and South 45th Street, the 14-acre site near the border with El Cerrito also sits at the figurative intersection of historic preservation and development. The Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the parcel, is studying the feasibility of building as many as 195 housing units in a project some say has little regard for history or the environment.

Neighborhood groups and environmentalists interested in restoration of Baxter Creek, which runs through the property of the former Oishi and Sakai nurseries, have been meeting on the proposed Miraflores project for more than a year, said Community Development Director Steve Duran. On Wednesday, the public at large will get a chance to voice concerns at a pair of public scoping meetings for the project's environmental impact report, which the city is in the process of drafting.

"Generally speaking, we know the broad topics -- contamination (from years of pesticide use), preservation, creek issues," said Natalia Lawrence, Miraflores project manager for the city. "People can speak to that, but we're looking for other issues."

Of particular interest to some residents in the Park Plaza, Pullman and Laurel Park neighborhoods is traffic, Lawrence said.

Ann Johnson, who lives in the Park Plaza neighborhood, where the property sits, has discussed Miraflores a number of times as a member of a citizens advisory committee. South 47th Street, which leads directly in front of the project, could be problematic, she said.

"The streets, as they are now, is parking on both sides, but it's not a very wide street," Johnson said. "So that was my concern as to what they were going to do to be able to take the traffic with the number of houses proposed."

That's just the type of input the city is seeking, Lawrence said.

"This is an attempt to let people know we're beginning the EIR process and to get feedback from people on what they think the EIR should address," she said. Optimistically, the city would begin to circulate a draft environmental report around June, Lawrence said.

But the preservation debate is likely to remain one of the thorniest topics.

Surveys have found nothing like the greenhouses anywhere else in California, said Donna Graves, a local researcher and program director for Richmond's "Memories of Macdonald" project who also is directing a project to document prewar Japantowns across California.

"Those Richmond nurseries represent a pretty amazing continuity of Japanese-American industry and really the prominent economic role Japanese-Americans played around the Bay," Graves said.

The city is considering preservation options that include restoring and retaining some of the buildings on site or moving them elsewhere.

That doesn't sit well with Anthony Veerkamp, senior program officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation Western Office. He wrote the City Council in May to push "a more appropriate balance between preservation and new construction."

"It's really kind of heartbreaking to me that that story may be lost," Veerkamp said Monday. "I think the city and redevelopment needs to do everything it can to preserve more than just a token element of this complex."

Reach Todd Perlman at 510-262-2731 or tperlman@bayareanewsgroup.com.

if you go

·  WHAT: Environmental report scoping meetings for the Miraflores concept plan project

·  WHEN: 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday

·  WHERE: Booker T. Anderson Community Center, 960 S. 47th St., Richmond

·  MORE INFORMATION: 510-620-6816