Richmond representatives, including the city manager and mayor, will be in Sacramento December 3 to testify at a State Lands Commission hearing on a 30-year renewal of the expired lease over State lands for the Chevron Long Wharf. Richmond will be asking the State Lands Commission to compel Chevron to provide a route for and construct the portion of the Bay Trail that connects Point Richmond with the Point San Pablo Peninsula.

Incredibly, the trail route currently runs along the shoulder of I-580 near the Toll Plaza of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. The route is so unsafe that in 2006, one bicyclist was killed and another seriously injured.

Chevron has stubbornly resisted cooperation in re-routing the trail, despite a study in which Chevron participated that concluded a suitable route was feasible.

Click here for a copy of a letter City Manager Bill Lindsay sent to the State lands Commission with Richmond’s requests.

In 2007, the City Council voted overwhelmingly to ask the State Lands Commission to include the bay Trail requirement in its new lease:

The Richmond City Council came down strongly for the San Francisco Bay Trail last night (March 20) by voting 8/0/1 to ask the State Lands Commission (SLC) to require Chevron to provide land and pay part of the cost for the planned Bay Trail to Point Molate before granting a new 30-year lease of State sub tidal lands for continued operation of the Long Wharf. The resolution introduced by Councilman Butt with Mayor McLaughlin and Councilman Rogers & Thurmond as cosponsors was moved and seconded by Councilors Bates and Viramontes. No one seconded Councilman Marquez's substitute motion to hold the item over for 60 days and meet with Chevron. This motion would have left the City with no position or legal standing when the State Lands Commission votes to approve a new 30-year lease for Long Wharf. The main motion then carried with 8 ayes and Marquez abstaining  (March 25, 2007, E-FORUM).

For more information, see:

·         Lawsuit Promised Over Bicyclist's Death, January 27, 2007

·         Long Wharf EIR Dashes Hopes for Bay Trail Link, March 11, 2007

·         City Council Says Yes to Bay Trail, No to Chevron, March 25, 2007

·         Bay Trail Access Article in Today's Berkeley Daily Planet,March 27, 2007

·         Bay Trail to Point Molate Pits Everyone Against Chevron, April 2, 2007

·         SF Chronicle Editorializes Chevron Trail Impasse, April 3, 2007

·         http://pointrichmond.com/baytrail/pointsanpablo.htm

·         http://pointrichmond.com/baytrail/whatnow.htm