| |
Controversial Development Proposal at Odds with General Plan
By: Sean Pyles
http://www.radiofreerichmond.com/controversial_development_proposal_at_odds_with_general_plan
An eccentric developer, large amounts of cash, and the future of development in Richmond are coming to a head around a controversial ballot initiative and housing development proposal that could have lasting effects on the city’s General Plan.
The controversy surrounds a proposed suburban-style development called the Richmond Riviera that would be built on a 4.9 acre plot of land just East of the Craneway Pavilion. Current zoning for the site calls for high-density commercial and residential development on the site. The ballot initiative would change this zoning to allow for lower density zoning to accommodate the project.
Such a shift could reduce the potential for affordable housing in the city and reduce the feasibility of the ferry line that will connect Richmond to San Francisco.
The current owner of the land and developer to-be Richard Poe has pushed for this development in unconventional ways. Namely, Poe is circumventing the design and environmental requirements of Richmond’s General Plan by pushing for approval of his development and change to the General Plan through a ballot initiative that will likely come before voters in June 2016.
City planners believe that this proposal could derail goals for development and set a dangerous precedent for approving changes to the City's General Plan without the collaborative community input that initially went into the Plan's development.
“The General Plan was the result of a five-year process and hundreds of meetings across the city,” Richard Mitchell, Director for Planning and Building for the City, said at a recent discussion on the proposal during City Council. The purpose of the General Plan is for the city to lay out its vision of development for the city that is based on the needs and goals of the community, Mitchell explained.
In the development of the city’s General Plan, three key locations — Hilltop, downtown, and this five-acre plot — were identified as areas for higher density, commercial and residential development than what is allowed elsewhere in the city.
Each of these high activity zones were selected for their particular positions in Richmond. The plot of land in question is a key resource to the city’s future development.
“This location is important because it’s Richmond’s southern waterfront gateway,” Mitchell said.
The plot of land in question is one of the last undeveloped spaces in a transforming neighborhood. A ferry line connecting Richmond to San Francisco, that will dock nearby around the Craneway Pavilion, is scheduled to open in the next two years. The UC Berkeley Global Campus, a project that will change the face of southern Richmond, is poised to break ground next year. A new overarching transportation and development plan was recently approved by city council.
At a time when this neighborhood is transforming, Mitchell explains, “this proposal is inconsistent with numerous policies.”
Current General Plan guidelines could accommodate between 50 and 125 dwelling units per acre, while the Richmond Riviera would have around 12 units per acre.
According to the Richmond Planning Department, such a shift could inhibit the city’s ability to meet it’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation, which is the City’s obligation to provide its share of housing in the area.
“When we were processing the 59 unit project I thought it did conform to the General Plan,” Poe said in a recent email. “Then we were told it didn't meet the General Plan vision…”
When asked why he wanted to pursue the development through the ballot initiative, Poe said “After three years, is that really a question?”
Poe is getting creative to secure its approval after years of pushing for the project. The developer recently brought an extra large novelty-sized check for $2 million to a meeting of Richmond City Council. Poe would give it to the City, he said, if his proposal was approved then and there. The Council didn’t take him up on the offer.
Another of the city’s main concerns of the initiative is that it flies in the face of the democratic process around developing a general plan and development goals in Richmond.
“If this initiative is approved, the project is approved absolutely as it is described here,” the head of the Planning Department said. “There will be no Planning Commission, no design review, there will be no community input, no council review, no nothing.”
If approved by voters, the City would have no power to order an environmental review of Poe’s proposed development, though the developer has said he would do one voluntarily.
It is expected that on Tuesday city council will put the initiative on the ballot for voters in a special election in June 2016. From there, it will be up to Richmond voters to determine the future of development in the city.
Photo: Dahlin Group Architecture
Richmond developer wants residents, not city, to decide on housing project
http://www.contracostatimes.com/richmond/ci_29156890/richmond-developer-wants-residents-not-city-decide-housing
By Karina Ioffee kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 11/24/2015 06:40:26 AM PST0 Comments | Updated: about 10 hours ago
RICHMOND -- A prominent Richmond developer who has failed to get city support for his latest housing project wants residents to decide the matter through a ballot measure next year.
Virtual Development Corp. CEO Richard Poe wants to build 59 single-family homes in Richmond's growing Marina Bay neighborhood. But city planners object, arguing that the project doesn't fit with Richmond's long-term vision for the waterfront area, which it has identified as "a major activity center," with offices, shops and potentially even a hotel all rising to five floors above the ground.
The difference of opinion has unleashed a bitter battle between proponents of Poe's plan, who now include some Marina Bay-area residents and families whose children attend a charter school in the area, and city planners who say Richmond has a unique opportunity to build a more dense project that creates not only more housing but shops and other amenities. The city's plans for the area also are predicated on new ferry service between Richmond and San Francisco, scheduled to start in 2018.
"If people have to drive across town to get on the ferry, they will be less likely to use it," said Richard Mitchell, Richmond's planning director, adding that Poe's housing development would generate no more than 10 ferry users a day. "Marina Bay residents complain that they don't have grocery stores, but they'll never get them if they don't have enough human beings living in the area."
Backers of the Richmond Riviera project have mounted a petition drive to place the project on the ballot. On Tuesday, the City Council can either approve the project as proposed in the petition or order an election, likely in June, at a cost of at least $100,000 to the city. If approved by the council or voters, Poe's project will not be subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state's landmark environmental law that requires big projects to disclose their environmental impacts and reduce as many of them as possible. Other reviews would also be skipped, according to city attorneys.
"It's a new way to do land use and appalling," Mitchell said. "This is not how we want to do business."
Poe says his project would get a full vetting before being built. He also says he chose the initiative route after spending more than three years in discussions and $1 million in fees to the city.
"It's clear that staff wants to see only one type of development and has a bias toward that," Poe said. "I'm just tired."
Poe, who previously lived in Richmond but now resides in Florida, says he is not opposed to building high-rise buildings per se. He just thinks they are not a good financial investment compared with the single-family homes that would sell for upward of $700,000, netting him an estimated $300,000 per home.
By comparison, the bay's high liquefiable soil makes it expensive to install pilings that would be needed to support a five-story building, increasing costs.
"You can't command the prices for those units the city envisions, so it's our conclusion that this is not the type of project that is economically feasible for us at this time," Poe said.
Each home under Poe's proposal would have solar panels and an energy pack that allows residents to stay off the grid even after the sun sets. To sweeten the deal, Poe has promised to donate land to the city to build 38 affordable housing units for teachers, earning him instant support from both educators and many families.
But funds for building the new teacher housing would come from in-lieu fees developers pay the city as well as additional funds from the state, Poe admitted. And there is no guarantee the city would choose to use the money for such purposes.
That doesn't seem to worry families, who crowded the City Council chamber last week in an effort to convince elected officials that single-family homes would be the best use of the area. Many argued that building high-rise apartments will bring transitory urban dwellers who have little desire to put down roots and will ruin Richmond's family-friendly atmosphere. Several children also spoke at last week's raucous meeting that went on until 1 a.m.
"We want a perennial flower bed of families instead of a flower bed that will die off," said Padyn Riddell, 14, a student at the John Henry High School in Richmond, run by Amethod, a network of charter schools.
But opponents worry that allowing a developer to take a project directly to voters instead of negotiating with city planners reduces the scrutiny it receives and allows deep-pocketed developers to influence the outcome through slick mailers and other forms of marketing.
"In a complex society, what's democratic is to have representative government study these things, go over them, have citizen oversight and then make a decision," said Mike Parker, a Richmond resident who last year briefly ran for mayor before dropping out of the race. "It's just wrong to try to deal with these issues by just throwing them out for a 'yes' or 'no' vote when you can't amend them, can't change them. It sets a very dangerous precedent."
Poe is also linked to a separate effort to cap the city manager's salary and benefits at five times Richmond's median income, or roughly $270,000. Poe's name does not appear on either initiative, although he is largely perceived as their author and financial backer.
Contact Karina Ioffee at 510-262-2726. Follow her at Twitter.com/kioffee.
IF YOU GO What: Richmond City Council meeting
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Community Services Building, 440 Civic Center Plaza |
