Albany Council rejects writing a waterfront master plan

Community must build environmental vision for shoreline

Two visions have been competing for the Albany shoreline.

• The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations have advocated the long-term goal of adding most of Albany's shoreline to the Eastshore State Park, with some limited, carefully planned development at an appropriate location, probably near the freeway (to bring in revenue for the city of Albany so that it will not lose tax revenues when the Golden Gate Fields race track closes).
• The track's owners, however, would prefer to build a vast commercial complex of casino and mega-mall by the Bayside, leaving for the public some scraps of less desirable land without views.

The Albany Waterfront Committee proposed to the City Council that the city initiate a planning process, but only Councilmember Bob Lieber supported the idea.

The threat of piecemeal development

Race tracks today lose money - unless vast commercial development or casinos are built to support them. Magna Entertainment, which owns Golden Gate Fields, is trying to create "racinos" (race-track casinos) at all of its tracks. If Albany rejects such a development, the Magna is almost certain to close down Golden Gate Fields. If such new development is allowed there, the Club's vision is not likely to be realized in our lifetimes.

Magna Entertainment has teamed up with Southern California mall developer Rick Caruso to propose a 45-acre shopping mall west of the race track on an unused parking lot. The half million to million square feet of development would hide the Bay shoreline from the rest of the site. To the east of the mall would be a large parking structure. Thus, as one goes down to the Albany Beach and Bulb, one would see a huge parking structure instead of today's open vista of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Caruso's flagship mall is "the Grove" in Los Angeles. It has huge 5 - 8-story parking garages and chain stores in faux old-style buildings. We do not want such a sanitized plastic environment next to the wild and chaotic Albany waterfront of the Beach and Bulb.

Most frighteningly, if the Magna/Caruso plan is approved, nothing will prevent additional proposals to develop more of the site. We could see millions of square feet of commercial development on the race-track site and the transformation of "small town" Albany to a Southern California-style mall-centered city.

As chain stores filled the race track site, they would suck the economic vitality out of Solano Avenue. The Magna/Caruso Mall would transform Solano Avenue from a vital small-business district into a service area for Albany with its main retail and shopping center shifting to the waterfront.

The answer: planned development

To prevent this monster of piecemeal development, Albany needs to plan the entire waterfront at once. A waterfront master plan would ensure a fair return to the property owner while protecting the waterfront for all of us to enjoy in the future. The plan would set criteria for protecting the waterfront and for balancing the needs of the community with those of the property owner.

In a poll in May, close to 60% of Albany voters rejected the Magna/Caruso mall proposal. But a poll alone will not stop development. If the City Council is unwilling to plan for the shoreline, residents must act.

The Sierra Club therefore is organizing a campaign - to enable the people of Albany to plan for the race-track site as a whole.

In addition, the Club, along with Citizens for East Shore Parks and Citizens for the Albany Shoreline, was fortunate to have a developer who worked for Lincoln Properties, a large California development company, put together a plan based on standard developer assumptions and analyses of size, revenues, and income potential. This development concept is for a hotel/conference center that would complement and provide more business to Solano Avenue and San Pablo Avenue restaurants and businesses. It would be located at an appropriate location in the waterfront area near the freeway where it would not impact creeks or wetlands. The project would include a restoration of Codornices Creek where it originally flowed, through the middle of what is now the race track. This plan is not fixed, but provides a benchmark for what the community can achieve through thoughtful planning.

WhatYouCanDo

We need your help. Magna and Caruso have begun a sophisticated campaign to win over the hearts and minds of Albany residents. Our campaign must rely on people power.

To help, contact Anna Wagner at the Chapter Office at (510) 848-0800, ext. 307, or email anna-at-sfbaysc.org

For more information, contact Norman La Force at (510) 526-4362 or email n.laforce-at-comcast.net

Norman La Force, chair, East Bay Public Lands Committee