|
| The Conservancy meets today at 10:00 AM with the following item on the Agenda:
18. Consideration and possible authorization to disburse up to $35,985,000 to East Bay Regional Park District to acquire approximately 52 acres at Point Molate in the City of Richmond, County of Contra Costa, to create a regional shoreline park that will protect, and may restore and enhance, open space, natural, scenic, cultural, and historic resources; and that will provide compatible public and California Native American tribal access, including recreational and visitor-serving amenities.
I will be making the following public comments:
My name is Tom Butt. I served nearly 30 years on the Richmond City Council including eight years as Richmond’s elected mayor. During that time, we acquired Point Molate from the Navy for $1.00, spent nearly $30 million cleaning it up to the highest reuse standards and adopted a Reuse Plan that preserved 70% of it as public open space, including a park along the entire shoreline, while also preserving the historic buildings and infrastructure of the Winehaven Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The action that is before this body today is to spend $36 million of public funds to purchase land that was previously purchased for $1.00. Because the current City Council has abandoned the development entitlements, the land is virtually worthless. The current appraisal has never been made public but likely reaches the same conclusion.
The agenda item deceptively describes “creating a regional shoreline park,” but none of the 52 acres to be acquired is actually on the shoreline, which is already owned by the City of Richmond and has always been committed to use as a shoreline park.
But what I really want to bring up is the Winehaven Historic District. Although the $36 million is not being used to acquire the portion of the property occupied by Winehaven, it is part and parcel of a plan to abandon the Winehaven Historic District and let it crumble into oblivion. Today, with an atmospheric river impacting Richmond, the rain is falling through the roofs of Winehaven’s historic cottages, resulting in decay and mold that may be impossible to mitigate.
A park is not necessarily just open space. Indeed, many of our state and national parks, including Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park, include priceless cultural resources that help interpret our nation’s history. Even the State Coastal Conservancy recognizes in its Coastal Access Project Standards that part of its mission includes consideration of historic sites and cultural resources.
Winehaven was once the world’s largest winery and epicenter of the California wine industry, now a $54 billion market, and yet no one connected with the concept of a park at Point Molate has ever articulated how Winehaven will be preserved and what its future will be. To the contrary, both elected officials and community park advocates have stated that Winehaven has no value and should just go away.
I urge the Coastal Conservancy to delay approval of $36 million to acquire a major portion of Point Molate until there is a viable plan to save Winehaven
|
