December 9, 2024 Design Review Board Meeting

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you for joining us for the Bcdc Design Review Board meeting. I’d like to remind Board members to please speak directly into the microphone in front of you and have it on only when you want to speak. And please ensure that your video on your laptops is always on, but your audio is disabled.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you, Ashley. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jacinta Mccann. I’m the chair of the Bcdc. Design Review Board.

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m located here at the Metro center in San Francisco, and our 1st order of business is to call the roll

Yerba Buena SX80: Board members. Can you unmute yourselves to respond and then mute yourselves again after responding so, staff, could you please call the roll

Yerba Buena SX80: chair, Mccann, present Vice Chair, Strang, present Board, Member Battaglio, present Board, Member Hall.

Yerba Buena SX80: present board, member, leader, present and board Member Pellegrini, present

Yerba Buena SX80: Staff, or Pcdc. Staff attending this meeting are myself Ashley, Tomerlin, Yuri, Jewett, Catherine Pan, and Lisa Herron.

Yerba Buena SX80: Very good. Thanks, Ashley. We have a quorum presence, so we’re duly constituted to conduct business. So we will move ahead with the agenda. To begin with, I want to share some instructions on how we can best participate in this meeting, so that it runs as smoothly as possible

Yerba Buena SX80: for everyone who’s joined us online and in the meeting room. Please make sure that you have your microphones or phones muted to avoid background noise for board members. If you have a webcam, please make sure that it’s on. As Ashley just said. So everyone can see you. And for members of the public, if you’d like to speak during a public comment period. That’s part of an agenda item. You will need to do so in one of 3 ways. 1st of all, if you’re here with us in person.

Yerba Buena SX80: we will ask you to form a line near the podium. If you wish to make a public comment.

Yerba Buena SX80: speaker, cards are available at the door, and you’ll be asked to come up to the podium one at a time.

Yerba Buena SX80: and state your name and affiliation prior to providing your comments during the meeting.

Yerba Buena SX80: After all, individuals who are present make their comments. We shall call on those participants who are attending remotely

Yerba Buena SX80: the second way, if you’re attending on the Zoom Platform, please raise your virtual hand

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Yerba Buena SX80: it’s hard to think of anyone who wouldn’t be new to zoom at this point in our in our world. But if you are new to zoom and you join our meeting using the zoom application, click the hand at the bottom of your screen, the hand should turn blue when it’s raised. And finally, if you’re joining our meeting via phone, you must press Star 9 on your keypad to raise or lower your hand to make a comment and star 6 to mute or unmute your phone. We will call on individuals who have raised their hands in the order that they are raised.

Yerba Buena SX80: After you are called on, you will be unmuted, so that you can share your comments. Please state your name and affiliation. At the beginning of your remarks. Remember, you have a limit of 3 min to speak on an item, and we will tell you when you have 1 min remaining.

Yerba Buena SX80: Please keep your comments respectful and focused. We are here to listen to everyone who wishes to address us, but everyone has the responsibility to act in a civil manner.

Yerba Buena SX80: We will not tolerate hate, speech, threats made directly or indirectly, and or abusive language.

Yerba Buena SX80: We will mute anyone who fails to follow these guidelines, or who exceeds the established time limits without permission

Yerba Buena SX80: for public comments. If you are attending online, please note that we will only hear your voices. Your video will not be enabled.

Yerba Buena SX80: If you are attending the meeting on the Zoom Platform, we recommend using the gallery view option in view settings in order to see all the panelists and audio for in-person panelists will be recorded through the room’s audio system and is not synced to the individual panelists videos.

Yerba Buena SX80: If you would like to add your contact information to the interested parties. List to be notified of future meetings concerning these projects. Please call or email Ashley Tomelon, whose contact information is on the screen. And it can also be found on the Bcdc’s website.

Yerba Buena SX80: With that, we’ll move to Item 2, which is the staff update. And Ashley, I’ll hand to you for that.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you. Chair Mccann. 1st and foremost you will have received an email to complete your mandatory ethics. Training.

Yerba Buena SX80: Please complete this by the end of 2024, and please reach out to me if you need the link. Resent

Yerba Buena SX80: for project updates. The regional shoreline adaptation plan was adopted by the Commission last Thursday.

Yerba Buena SX80: The Rsap. Framework in the public draft were brought to the Board in June and October of this year and staff look forward to bringing updates on the planning and technical guidance as the implementation of those efforts move forward.

Yerba Buena SX80: Staff are working on the permit application for 1499, Bayshore, the R. And D. Campus in Burlingame, came to you in November, in 2023,

Yerba Buena SX80: and we will also likely have Brooklyn Basin Channel Park. Coming to the Drb. In spring 2025. The Brooklyn Basin project most recently came before the Board in April 2019.

Yerba Buena SX80: Our next Drb. Meeting will be January 6, th and will be a review of the San Francisco, Rec. And Park district or Department, East Harbor and Marina Green Project.

Yerba Buena SX80: and that, concludes the Bcdc staff update. I’ll pause here to answer any questions from the Board already.

Yerba Buena SX80: Any questions from board members.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, I just have one comment. I just want to congratulate all the staff at Bcdc. For accomplishing the regional shoreline adaptation plan. That was a big day on Thursday, was it? Last week? Yeah, and

Yerba Buena SX80: and it was fantastic to see so much interest in it. And it’s certainly got a lot of media attention. So I was really felt, you guys have accomplished a lot with that. And and it’s work that’s going to be very impactful with all cities as we progress over coming years so well done to everybody. Thank you for the hard work.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, so with that, we’ll move to agenda. Item number 3

Yerba Buena SX80: which is a public comment for items that are not on tonight’s agenda. So we’ll have public comment for the proposed development. But,

Yerba Buena SX80: is there any public comment for anything that’s not on the agenda. I see no public comment. Okay?

Yerba Buena SX80: Well, hearing that, we will move on

Yerba Buena SX80: to agenda. Item number 4, which is the 1st review of the Marina Point Development project in Richmond, Contra Costa Costa County.

Yerba Buena SX80: And we have actually, I’ll just run through the Project review order so that we can keep track of that. So we’ll start with the Bcdc. Staff project presentations, and then we will move to clarifying questions from the board

Yerba Buena SX80: on the materials presented to us by the staff. Then we will go to public comment.

Yerba Buena SX80: Then we will move to board.

Yerba Buena SX80: discussion and summary, and then we’ll have the staff response, and I immediately following the Bcdc staff presentation and the clarifying comments, we will have the proponent presentation as well. Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay.

Yerba Buena SX80: And I do want to welcome our in person representatives from the proposed development. It makes a big difference to us to have people in person. We really appreciate that. I think it helps the

Yerba Buena SX80: level of communication between us all. So, thanks for being here.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay. So with that. Bcdc, permit analyst, Lisa Herron will introduce the project. Thank you. Lisa.

Yerba Buena SX80: Right?

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay. Thank you. Chair Mccann, and good evening board members. I’m Lisa Herron, a shoreline development analyst at Bcdc.

Yerba Buena SX80: Before I present the staff introduction. I’d like to remind anyone who’s on the project team and staff to please turn on your video when you’re speaking or answering questions, and when you’re not actively engaged

Yerba Buena SX80: with the board. Please turn off your video so that we can minimize the distractions on the screen. And for now I’d like to introduce the project for tonight’s Review. This is the 1st review of the Marina Point development in the city of Richmond and Contra Costa County

Yerba Buena SX80: boom.

Yerba Buena SX80: little Eager. Okay. The proposed project is located at the terminus of Marina Way, south in Richmond’s Marina Bay and South Shoreline.

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s located between Marina Way south, a school in a park to the East and the National Park Service, Rosie, the Riveter Historical Park. To the west.

Yerba Buena SX80: to the north the site is bordered by industrial development, and to the south the bay trail. On the bay side of the trail is the Ford Channel, which connects both to Richmond’s inner harbor and to Marina Bay.

Yerba Buena SX80: The site is highlighted in several local plans as an asset due to its location along the Bay trail proximity to open space and waterfront amenities.

Yerba Buena SX80: This includes the Richmond Ferry terminal and transit connecting Inner Richmond to the waterfront. We’ll detail this more in the planning context.

Yerba Buena SX80: Here are some local context for parks and public access along the shoreline. The open space areas are shown in yellow dashed lines with the existing bay trail alignment in green and the site of the future Richmond Wellness trail in red dashed lines.

Yerba Buena SX80: The Bay trail serves as a connection from the Richmond Ferry terminal along the coastline, through neighborhoods down toward El Cerrito, Albany, and Berkeley.

Yerba Buena SX80: In addition to features mentioned in the previous slide, there’s also a complex to the West that includes the historic Ford Assembly Building and Craneway Pavilion, Events center and the assemble kitchen restaurant immediately adjacent to the eastern border of the site is Lucretia Edwards Park, Benito Juarez, elementary school, and the future Richmond Wellness trail

Yerba Buena SX80: just for a little bit of historic background. In 1941 the Kaiser Richmond shipyards transformed the south shoreline, including the project site into one of the West Coast, most vital wartime industrial centers during World War Ii. The Kaiser shipyards constructed more ships for the armed forces than any other American shipyard, and this is just an aerial.

Yerba Buena SX80: but the project site well, you can’t see my arrow.

Yerba Buena SX80: all right. So now, on to site conditions, the site is about 4.9 2 acres in size, and has remained undeveloped since the 19 eighties. It is surrounded by a chain link fence fence with overgrown fennel and other vegetation, and there is no public access currently on the site itself.

Yerba Buena SX80: I conducted a site visit via Bike a few weeks ago and stopped to take photos, most of which are from this visit.

Yerba Buena SX80: These photos features, feature views from the east and west of the site along Great Bay trail frontage which runs along the southern portion of the site.

Yerba Buena SX80: And now a closer look.

Yerba Buena SX80: These are photos of the southern edge of the site. The 1st photo is from a prior visit a few years back, and the second photo shows the same area from my bike ride or from my site visit with more overgrown vegetation. You can see here again that the shoreline has subgrade seawall dike armored with large stone riprap.

Yerba Buena SX80: Marina way South runs along the eastern edge of the site. These are views as you approach the bay. This is where the previously mentioned Richmond Wellness Trail is located.

Yerba Buena SX80: This trail is a proposed 4 mile bicycle and pedestrian corridor that will run from downtown Richmond to the Bay.

Yerba Buena SX80: It is not part of this development, and is funded through a partnership with the city of Richmond, and trust for public lands, parks for people.

Yerba Buena SX80: Again. Here’s a closer look with a view of Brooks Island.

Yerba Buena SX80: and here’s another view west from the eastern side of Marina Bay

Yerba Buena SX80: towards the site from Vincent Park. So you can bike all the way around towards the site.

Yerba Buena SX80: All right. Now for planning context.

Yerba Buena SX80: this is the land use and planning map from Richmond’s general plan adopted in 2012. I’d like to focus in on the Marina Bay area so that we can see how the city and constituents have conceived of this site.

Yerba Buena SX80: Here you’ll see. The site is designated with deep, with a deep red, indicating the desire for it to be a major activity center or high intensity mixed use.

Yerba Buena SX80: The plan defines this as an area prime for mixed use and higher density development. In addition to streets with wide sidewalks and public spaces that are welcoming to pedestrians and transit riders.

Yerba Buena SX80: The general plan further emphasizes major activity. Centers should have generously landscape setbacks to enhance visual and physical connections to the waterfront, and should include the integration of water or transit oriented development principles.

Yerba Buena SX80: The Richmond Bay specific plan was adopted in 2016. So 4 years later, and it provides a stakeholder driven framework for development along a 320 acre portion of Richmond bay.

Yerba Buena SX80: and that’s the dashed red bit. The specific plan does not include the site itself, but it did identify the site and water frontage as an asset in the planning process.

Yerba Buena SX80: The site is also identified as one of several potential complete neighborhoods in which local nodes of activity and amenities, such as transit, are located close together.

Yerba Buena SX80: Marina way south on the eastern edge of the proposed development, is also identified as a key transit corridor and connection to the waterfront for Richmond residents and visitors.

Yerba Buena SX80: So here’s what the community vulnerability mapping tool demonstrates us about the area relative to the broader community of Richmond. The site is in a census block group that’s identified as having low social vulnerability and lower contamination vulnerability with only high percentiles for the following indicators disabled and very low income residents.

Yerba Buena SX80: We’d like to note that the surrounding the immediate census block there are areas identified as having highest social vulnerability and highest contamination vulnerability.

Yerba Buena SX80: We’ve included more census blocks in context, because this is not only attraction and important waterfront site identified by Richmond planning documents, it’s also highly used by the city’s residents for work and pleasure, many of whom who live in more vulnerable communities.

Yerba Buena SX80: Regarding potential sea level rise. This map shows what 24 inches of sea level rise on top of mean, high, high water would look like if the site remain unchanged.

Yerba Buena SX80: using the ocean Protection council, sea level rise guidance. 24 inches of sea level rise is equivalent to a king tide at mid-century under the intermediate high scenario.

Yerba Buena SX80: This map shows what 66 inches of sea level rise on top of mean higher high water would look like at the site if it was unchanged, which is anticipated to occur at roughly 2,100 for the intermediate high scenario.

Yerba Buena SX80: This also corresponds to the 100 year storm condition at 27 d.

Yerba Buena SX80: In this scenario the frontage would be flooded with overtopping, occurring at the southeastern corner of the site.

Yerba Buena SX80: I want to point out the overtopping along the bay trail and public access to the east and west and potential impacts to public access, making the site an important one for future public access in this area.

Yerba Buena SX80: I should also note that the Fema flood insurance map indicated this area zone be meaning. There are significant waves at the shoreline of the site, and it will be exposed to that during wind events or storms.

Yerba Buena SX80: So before we introduce the project proponents, I’d like to quickly summarize the questions in the staff. Report that we’d like the Board to consider in your review. First, st please consider how the project meets the public access objectives provided in Bcdc’s public access design guidelines.

Yerba Buena SX80: Then Staff has identified some specific questions. We’d like to ask the board about the design at this stage. These are, does the project enhance.

Yerba Buena SX80: project, design, enhance the user’s access to and experience of the shoreline? What other opportunities are there to build connections or further improve existing public access as part of this project?

Yerba Buena SX80: 2.

Yerba Buena SX80: Does the project as designed, provide sufficient capacity for future adaptation strategies. What can be incorporated into the design to facilitate shoreline change in the future?

Yerba Buena SX80: 3. Do the landscaping and fitness program along the eastern edge that Marina way south edge of the development. Read as a public connection to the shoreline. And what design recommendations can you provide to encourage public use for these areas?

Yerba Buena SX80: And 4. Does the Board have recommendations on the proposed plant and material palettes?

Yerba Buena SX80: All right.

Yerba Buena SX80: Now we’ll open it up to.

Yerba Buena SX80: I wanna see if there’s any clarifying questions from the board. Wait anything

Yerba Buena SX80: on on the staff presentation. Yes.

Yerba Buena SX80: Just put this across to the board here for clarifying questions, Bob. Go ahead.

Yerba Buena SX80: Hey? Thanks for that presentation. I noticed that. The applicant is, I think they’re using 3 feet of sea level rise for their criteria.

Yerba Buena SX80: How do you know how that was determined? Or was that something that is

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s not a Bcdc policy, necessarily, is it? Or just what they’re proposing? That might be a better question for the applicant that answers my question. Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, any other questions on the staff report?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. I mean, I I note in one of the submissions public comment submissions there is some description of the 100 foot shoreline band and guidance on that. But

Yerba Buena SX80: could one of the staff, just for for the benefit of everyone attending the meeting?

Yerba Buena SX80: for the board and and everyone else? Could someone just summarize what the key

Yerba Buena SX80: guidances associated or definitive requirements associated with the 100 foot shoreline band.

Yerba Buena SX80: So within the 100 foot shoreline band, probably the key thing to keep in mind is that the Commission can only deny a project application based on a finding that it doesn’t provide maximum, feasible public access consistent with the project.

Yerba Buena SX80: And that’s maximum feasible public access to the bay and shoreline. So otherwise. You know, the Bay plan does contain like a large selection of policies related to like what makes public access. And so those things.

Yerba Buena SX80: or or maybe what we would look at in terms of it’s it’s a little bit more discretionary. There’s not like a little bit of a hard and fast.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, what can be approved, what can be denied in the shoreline band?

Yerba Buena SX80: So in some cases, you know, we do see like structures. We see parks. We see various things, but it’s all sort of has to be consistent with

Yerba Buena SX80: the the site context. Yeah. And I mean just to

Yerba Buena SX80: add to what you’re saying. The original designation of the 100 feet was put in place so that there would be additional scrutiny on that area right because of the sensitivity, vulnerability from an access standpoint and

Yerba Buena SX80: and other considerations visual and so on, that we have to take into account exactly. And in addition, I think I did leave out. So if it is in some sort of a priority use area. That is another basis on which the Commission can consider whether to approve or deny an application. Right?

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you. That’s very helpful.

Yerba Buena SX80: Go ahead, Gary. One other thing. Do you have? Can you give us a quick summary of the Permit history

Yerba Buena SX80: in terms of what previous permits have been approved, and by by who? Because I understand it’s been through the city a few times.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, so I can start with like a broader overview. And then maybe we’ll call upon my colleagues.

Yerba Buena SX80: so this this specific site itself doesn’t have like an individual permit on it. But in 1989 is the is when the original permit was issued for the overall development of Marina Bay, so that whole like master planned area and this site wasn’t part of

Yerba Buena SX80: part of that initially. And so in that initial initial permit, there was lots of housing and kind of redevelopment things, and then certain public access requirements. And it’s gone through about 6 amendment iterations, most recent of which was in 1999,

Yerba Buena SX80: I believe.

Yerba Buena SX80: Oh, just kidding 2,008 and

Yerba Buena SX80: What we know like during that process, that some of the things that were permitted was that bay trail frontage lots of the public access in and around that area, including that Lucretia Edwards Park, and that in that 2,008 permit.

Yerba Buena SX80: There was a an office building that was permitted for this particular site. But for whatever reason, we don’t really have all of the details, it didn’t go through, or nothing was developed there.

Yerba Buena SX80: And so it’s it’s remained undeveloped. But I don’t know if you want to add anything else.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, just a follow up question on that. Who is the current owner of the site.

Yerba Buena SX80: You guys are the owner capital?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. And was it, was it? I mean.

Yerba Buena SX80: I presume it was part of the Ford factory.

Yerba Buena SX80: Land area. Yeah, at some point some of it was owned by the Richmond Redevelopment Agency. And then so there was a Co. Permitee on this. It was Richmond redevelopment. And then another developer who was on this site prior. And now it’s guardian capital which Glenn is part of. Yeah. But I think I read that the city is not associated with this proposal. No, yeah, yeah, thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yes.

Yerba Buena SX80: Do any of you recall what happened with the 5 0 5 East Bayshore Project.

Yerba Buena SX80: where there were townhomes in the shoreline band.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. So that was approved by the commission. This past June, I believe. So that site was a I think it was a 2 point something 2.3 2.5 acre site in the South Bay,

Yerba Buena SX80: Redwood City and it did provide a.

Yerba Buena SX80: It wasn’t part of the bay trail. There was a shoreline trail and some shoreline protection in behind the townhomes, and also some other public access improvements along the roadway frontage.

Yerba Buena SX80: So yeah, so that

Yerba Buena SX80: that end up being approved. And that was, I’m gonna completely tax your memory if you can remember this.

Yerba Buena SX80: but we saw that in

Yerba Buena SX80: we saw that in August

Yerba Buena SX80: of 2021 is when I have. Is that the last time we saw it. I believe so. And so. The last version was the one that was approved. It may have changed slightly from the last time that it came to the board.

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s funny I don’t know if anybody here was working on it. Maybe Yuri was. But no, not at that point, but, like in the longer history of that project, there was actually some reconfiguration of the original project in order to accommodate some more of that public access and like the drawing protection. And so that was a part of the design process that came out

Yerba Buena SX80: like discussions with, I think, the Drb. And Nbcdc, okay, thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: So so was this site designated as residential, or is it? It doesn’t have any land use designation at all.

Yerba Buena SX80: You mean through the the city of Richmond general plan, or in what? Yeah, through the previous planning process.

Yerba Buena SX80: So it does. So the land use designations. I don’t know if you want to go back to the general plan.

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah. So I think the the designation that they put on it was this high intensity, mixed use activity center, right? And but that’s not this

Yerba Buena SX80: parcel, just this entire area. No, no, it’s that parcel, or it’s the yeah. It’s that red zone

Yerba Buena SX80: like the overall. So just from like I don’t know if you actually want to respond to this. But

Yerba Buena SX80: those those red bars that we’re seeing. Yeah. So if you. If you look the deep, the the deep, dark red, and I put a circle around it, and if you look over to activity centers, it has

Yerba Buena SX80: high intensity, mixed use, major activity center. And there’s quite a bit of big detail in the in the general plan about what that means and sort of design recommendations, urban form, that kind of thing. Yeah. And then the zone. The local zoning is consistent with this designation. Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: like. So on the individual parcel basis.

Yerba Buena SX80: And is there any height limit restrictions in this area?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yes.

Yerba Buena SX80: Oh, yeah, I don’t know.

Yerba Buena SX80: 25.

Yerba Buena SX80: So just to clarify. I board Member Pellegrini just said, 125 feet is the height in the general plan defined in the general plan. Yeah, okay.

Yerba Buena SX80: don’t quote me on that. Well, let’s make that a working. We’ll make that a working assumption, for now we can take a quick look while you’re yeah, I think. Okay.

Yerba Buena SX80: yes, Tom, go ahead.

Yerba Buena SX80: Excuse me, I live in Richmond, and I recall that there was a previous single family home plan for this site

Yerba Buena SX80: which went through various processes and eventually went to a ballot measure.

Yerba Buena SX80: And I don’t know what happened after that.

Yerba Buena SX80: This is one of those questions where it will require more. Follow up. But yeah, I did find an email exchanges of past Pcdc members that it did go to a ballot measure. And I don’t think that the project ultimately moved forward with the planning commission. But I’ll have to follow up on that. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, there’s interesting back and forth. I mean, I think that was about 2016. Is that correct?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, that’s about right. Yeah, yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah. I mean, I recall that as well, Tom. But

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah, well, anyway, we can always get more precise feedback on the as needed. Yup.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, thank you. Well, I think that

Yerba Buena SX80: concludes the clarifying question. So we’ll go to the proponent presentation. Now, thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Sure.

Yerba Buena SX80: This work. Hi, I’m Brian Winter. I’m the land use attorney on behalf of the applicant, and I thought before the design team talks about the details of the project. I might address a couple of the contextual legal questions that have already come up. So just just very briefly, Staff, and appreciate Staff’s sorry the presentation first, st rather than because I think this might help

Yerba Buena SX80: assist the presentation contextually. But it’s up to you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Let’s have the developer introduce the project, and then you can speak to any context that you’ll provide.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, it would be helpful to have the team introduced here as well, and Speaker introduced. Thank you. Sounds good. Hi. My name is Marcia Vallier. I’m a landscape architect with Csw. St. 2. I merged with that firm about 2 years ago. I also have been a Richmond resident since 1990, and I’ve worked a lot on the Richmond waterfront and within Richmond proper. I’d like to introduce our developer.

Yerba Buena SX80: Do you want to say? Say hello? It’s Glenn Powells, and this is our land use Attorney

Yerba Buena SX80: Brian Winter, Brian Winter with Mother Star. We go. Yeah, thank you. And I’m Mike Beeder, the civil engineer with Csw. Stuber Stro as well.

Yerba Buena SX80: Oh, my gosh.

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m David Burden, an associate principal with Ktgy, and we’re the architects for the project. Okay, thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: So what I’d like to do is, I’ll go very quickly through our presentation. It mirrors very much what Lisa has presented. So this project? It’s a little bit of a delay. Sorry this project is an infill project proposed for the 4.9 2 acre site, which was part of the Kaiser Richmond shipyards during World War 2.

Yerba Buena SX80: And we’re looking at putting 70 small lot

Yerba Buena SX80: single family homes, 10% would be offered at affordable sales prices, and we will have 30 adu units on the 1st floor. And that’s all part of the inclusionary housing land use laws. The location is in Richmond of Carson and Lisa did a great job showing you where all of that is. So.

Yerba Buena SX80: Wow! Sorry. The delay is

Yerba Buena SX80: a little crazy. So in the Marina Bay area you can see the the texture of the neighborhood. You’ve got single family residential, detached along the Base, Sunset Point and Bayfront over to the right. And then, as you go to the top of the photograph, you have

Yerba Buena SX80: condominiums all along the edge. 2 and 3 story condominiums. And as you go around there’s vacant parcels and commercial properties there. So we have the Marina Point project that is in green with the big

Yerba Buena SX80: Arrow going down to it. So this is what the neighborhood looks like, and you can see over the bottom left hand corner. That is Sunset point, and that’s the single family detached units, and they’re about 10 feet apart, and they’re single family small backyards. And then, as you look towards San Francisco, you can see that there is a lot of park space. And then also on that Sunset Point, you can see how the frontage

Yerba Buena SX80: is the bay trail in Marina Bay. We call it the Esplanade, and it’s a 12 foot wide bay trail that is lit and has different nodes along the the edge of the bay, and it links a number of parks together, and we’re also we also link to the Richmond Ferry.

Yerba Buena SX80: So the aesthetic that we were looking to go and to use, for this project is kind of a mix of industrial coastal. And so, you know, since this was the shipyards, we wanted to have some of the concrete, more coastal landscape, and really make sure that we brought home and linked into the Rosie the Riveter World War, 2 Home

Yerba Buena SX80: Front National monument. And so we’ve been working with them. And I’ve been working with Donna Graves for a number of years on a lot of the interpretation in that area.

Yerba Buena SX80: The public art will be linked as well, and I’ll illuminate that a little bit more. The top left hand is at the ferry. We’ve got those reeds in the ferry, and then the entire perimeter of the esplanade has these shiphole interpretive signs that are dotted along the top one right in the middle. That’s Lucretia Edwards, shoreline Parks.

Yerba Buena SX80: That’s a park that I went to Bcdc. On about 25 years ago for that park, and that is to tell the Bay Area’s contribution to the war effort, and those Axial walls Point and to different shipyards, and those are boot prints from Brockton Shoe Museum

Yerba Buena SX80: in Massachusetts. So you can stand in real boot prints that also links to the Cheryl Barton and Susan Schwarzenberg, the Rosie, the Riveter Monument, and there are a number of other Shimada Park. There’s so so this whole area is really linked. And so we wanted to make sure our shoreline treatment linked to all the interpretation that exists and makes that that trail very rich. So this is the

Yerba Buena SX80: the plan itself. You can see that Lucretia Edwards is down in the bottom here, where my little hand is, and then the blue line is the Bcdc 100 foot line, and then the red line is semi-private right along the faces of the homes, but the rest is public access all along the frontage.

Yerba Buena SX80: The other connection that we’ve made is to the Richmond Wellness Trail. That is a it is

Yerba Buena SX80: It is work. Trust Republic lands is working on that. But there’s a project called Richmond Rising. They got a 30 million dollars grant to do different projects. And so this portion of the Wellness trail is being completed with those funds, with the Trust for public lands. And so the frontage along the eastern side of the project links to that, and it excuse me and addresses that, and we try and and create nodes for wellness along that edge.

Yerba Buena SX80: The

Yerba Buena SX80: so. So this is the view along the esplanade looking towards the Ford building. That’s a historic Ford building, and then over to the right, at the end of where the housing is. That’s the National home. That’s the Rosie, the Riveter National Park

Yerba Buena SX80: Space. And.

Yerba Buena SX80: let’s see. Sorry. And then this is a view from Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park. Out to the bay, and to the right is the the area that we’re developing that is a fitness node along the terminus of the Wellness trail as it meets the bay trail.

Yerba Buena SX80: the and again along the frontage. We are trying to make sure that we have an enlarged sort of coastal shoreline landscape along the edge to buffer the homes and to create this this more open space. Feeling along the edge of the housing. If you drive down Marina way south. You see, there’s, you know, a lot of stuff that’s just right, either parking lots or not a lot of stuff along the along that frontage. So we’ve tried to bring that

Yerba Buena SX80: landscape and that that kind of buffer along that edge. This is a view from Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park, and so you can see the context of the homes. They’re not any taller than the

Yerba Buena SX80: then the Ford building from this view.

Yerba Buena SX80: and then this is a view from Vincent Park. Now Edwards and the Vincents were very, very instrumental in developing the shoreline access within the city of Richmond. They used to have their little handbags, and they would go from place to place to try and make sure that there was shoreline. And so now the city of Richmond has 36 miles of shoreline because of those ladies.

Yerba Buena SX80: and this is the elevation along the front from the San Francisco Bay.

Yerba Buena SX80: So these are the elevations to show you the sea level rise, the esplanade or the bay trail, which is right here, is at Elevation 13 to 15, and we’re putting a plaza space. I think it’s going to be at around 15 at that elevation. And we’re doing stairs that go up and creating an amphitheater type space

Yerba Buena SX80: right at the center access to the to the project. You can see there’s a kind of a paseo right down the center and a little roadway down the center, so that the residents can funnel down that walkway or down through the paseos to the Wellness trail into the Hub. The the thing that we really wanted to do is sorry.

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m sorry about my little okay, and and again, this is the the view we wanted to create a plaza space, because the when we spoke with Kaylin Berry from the National Park Service. They don’t have a lot of exterior space where they can do lectures or or different things like that. And this is an easy walk, you know, a couple 100 feet from the the

Yerba Buena SX80: the National Park Monument space right here. And so we’re going to be working with Donna Graves, who has was instrumental in working on getting the Rosie the Riveter project going forward with the National Park Service, and she’s going. She’s also written

Yerba Buena SX80: a guide with the National Park Service on Resilience and Climate change. And so this will be her 1st project using those national Park standards and doing interpretation in this particular node.

Yerba Buena SX80: The. And this is the kind of the look of all the different pieces the the project area does have remnant walls from the old Kaiser shipyards. And so that’s why we have these concrete walls here and there, kind of creating where these old foundations were. And we’ve created this kind of carved out, this wave of a plaza space that is going to be set in permeable pavers

Yerba Buena SX80: and have seat walls and interpretation in and around the ground plane and then on panels, and we will be going with to the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission to go through the process of developing the public art, and when that happens it goes all the way full to this full city of Richmond, goes through the Design review goes to the Arts and Culture Commission, the Public Art Advisory Committee National Park Service. So there’s a lot of involvement in the interpretation that we’re going to be doing

Yerba Buena SX80: the

Yerba Buena SX80: The let’s see. Go to the next slide. Then down on the end of the project area. There’s a trail as the trail goes through. You can see we’ve got sort of a gently sloped landscape area. What happens in Richmond on the 3rd of July, because it’s less expensive than the 4th of July. The city has fireworks, and so everybody in the city comes down and sits along the shoreline. And so

Yerba Buena SX80: these little, these sloped areas with these grassy areas and the seat walls and these remnant walls will be wonderful places for people to watch the fireworks.

Yerba Buena SX80: Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park gets full of people. It’s it’s a really nice space for that. And then at the end

Yerba Buena SX80: right where the the terminus Marina way south, at the terminus of the Wellness Trail. We’ve created a fitness hub and picnic area. We’ve taken cues from the

Yerba Buena SX80: all the site furnishings that are in the Marina Bay neighborhood as well as in Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park next door, and use some concrete tables because they do hold up a lot more on the shoreline. And so we’re going to be using those we’ve got bike racks, tire changers, drinking fountains with a bottle filler.

Yerba Buena SX80: and then fitness equipment in the top corner. Here you can see the the drainage area and the bioretention spaces where we want to use those as spaces for children or people to walk through and to jump from rock to rock, and and so you know, creating informal play all along that that frontage along the east and the south frontage, and then it becomes a little bit more

Yerba Buena SX80: formalized with this robinia compan product, that and the robinia is a type of wood that holds up very well in this environment. And so that’s the the major fitness. Hub that. And

Yerba Buena SX80: let’s see, is there anything else? There’s also some interpretation that we’d like to bring down to this edge as well. This is the the view from

Yerba Buena SX80: the axial walkways that go down into the the park and into the edge of the development. So it feels to me it feels very public.

Yerba Buena SX80: And with that I’m going to stop the share on that

Yerba Buena SX80: And Brian, would you like to explain the land use a little bit

Yerba Buena SX80: is now an appropriate time. Okay, okay, thank you. Brian. Winter again, just a couple of points. I wanted to make. That, I would hope would help the Commission understand the legal context for for this project.

Yerba Buena SX80: with respect to the city and with respect to the Commission, one of which is that the project is being processed pursuant to several different State Housing laws, namely, Senate Bill 330, and the Housing Accountability Act.

Yerba Buena SX80: the Housing Accountability Act being, in my view, the most important housing production law that we have in California, and among many, and it describes in detail the Legislature describes in detail its concerns with respect to the housing supply shortage that we have in California, and how it’s

Yerba Buena SX80: it’s existed and grown for decades, and how this statute is meant to solve that, and among other things, it expresses the statewide housing policy that projects should be afforded the fullest possible agencies. Processing projects should give the fullest possible weight to the interest and provision of housing.

Yerba Buena SX80: This project, as staff accurately described, is in the city’s high intensity. Mixed use, land use, designation and zoning. The land use designation is one that allows densities of of up to up to right anything less than 125 units an acre up to 125 units per acre.

Yerba Buena SX80: And as the project’s been proposed with the city, it’s been, it’s been deemed complete under the Permit Streamlining Act, and it’s also been deemed consistent with the city’s land use regulations. All of the city’s land use regulations

Yerba Buena SX80: under the Housing Accountability Act. I can talk about that in detail if the Commission has any, or if the Board sorry if the Board has any interest, but it’s it’s been deemed consistent. As a matter of law with the city’s land use regulations. I don’t know about the prior project that was subject to a ballot referendum. But ballot referendums can only sorry a citizens. Referendum can only be filed on a project that is seeking a needs, discretionary legislative

Yerba Buena SX80: land use approvals, things like general plan amendments, specific plans and rezonings. It doesn’t. You cannot file a referendum petition with projects that need non legislative approvals like this project. This project only requires non legislative approvals, so there’s no possibility of a ballot referendum for this project. I don’t know about any prior project, but this is a project that does not require, because it’s deemed consistent. It does not require a general plan, amendment, a specific plan, or

Yerba Buena SX80: or a rezoning. I’m happy to answer any other questions about any of that. But I just thought it would be helpful to understand that specific legal context. Yeah, well, I appreciate that. And you also submitted a letter where you detailed a lot of this. So you’ve repeated a lot of that for us. So thank you. But

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, just to be clear for the board the purpose of the board, and all the other groups that are going to be reviewing this

Yerba Buena SX80: we don’t start by saying, this is a slam dunk. So let’s just give it, you know, approval. It comes across a bit like that. But so I know what the

Yerba Buena SX80: purpose of what you’re communicating is about. But let’s make sure that the processes that are defined in, you know.

Yerba Buena SX80: Well regarded planning processes have the opportunity to proceed absolutely. I only wanted to speak to it because it came up in the beginning, and I just thought it would be helpful to understand that context. But that’s the. And it’s it’s a useful context. So thank you very much. You’re welcome. Good

Yerba Buena SX80: and then to end. What I wanted to say is, there are some. There are 5 metrics that we tried to meet. One was public access.

Yerba Buena SX80: and this is, you know, looking at what your purview is public access. So we’ve got the 12 foot esplanade and created 22% open space within the project area for public. One thing I forgot to mention is, there’s a parallel walkway that’s up at Elevation 17 that goes to the cul-de-sac. So during sea level rise, or if there’s any issues

Yerba Buena SX80: that will continue to be an open pathway for access along the shoreline. So we have something, a little higher amenities. We have provided multiple amenities. We did see the abag comments we do provide a majority. Except for an 18 foot wide path. We have everything else that was asked for resilience. Again, we do have that upper path.

Yerba Buena SX80: longevity, the materials and the plant materials, and the different site furnishings that we’ve proposed. We feel have a lot of longevity, and having worked in Richmond for 35 years, I kind of know what’s going to work, and I know, Gary, you do, too. And then, as far as maintenance. This project will be maintained by the developer, the public area will be maintained by the developer, so it will not be a burden to the city of Richmond. With that I’d like to thank you

Yerba Buena SX80: and finish my presentation. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Marcia.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, at this point we’ll move to public comment.

Yerba Buena SX80: All clarifying questions. Maybe we’ll go to clarifying questions first, st just to keep this in our usual sequence.

Yerba Buena SX80: So for the Board any clarifying questions, Bob, we’ll start with you. Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you. Chair. I’ll try to be quick, because I know we try to be quick on these things. But did you all consider water access like they have over at Vincent Park and what I used to call the Richmond Peninsula? That sounds like it has a different. I actually worked on that project a long time ago with Rhaa. But you know there’s some fishing steps and beaches.

Yerba Buena SX80: Did you consider that

Yerba Buena SX80: we did not consider that because Lucretia Edwards shoreline parks has a huge huge that that big stairway that comes down it has use or area, for I think it’s like 50 feet wide, and then then right on the the corner, that whole thing has shoreline steps down. So we have. We have 3 areas that have public access within like

Yerba Buena SX80: couple 100 feet. And so we did not

Yerba Buena SX80: look at doing an additional step.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay? And and so that access is

Yerba Buena SX80: just steps. It’s not like you can’t necessarily get in the water. You can. Yeah, we used to kayak off of those stairs, so you just ported. Thank you. That’s good. That’s that’s helpful. Why, only 3 feet of sea level rise.

Yerba Buena SX80: And I say, only because typically we say 3 feet minimum.

Yerba Buena SX80: That kind of goes back to mid century. Of course we’re already

Yerba Buena SX80: getting close to that, and then 6 to 7 feet towards the end of the

Yerba Buena SX80: century. So if you’re only going with 3 feet, it’s going to be difficult to adapt

Yerba Buena SX80: another 3 to we. Yeah, we took it from projection from Noaa and the Ipcc the intergovernmental Panel for climate change and taking their considerations for environmental changes and local impacts. So it can be something that we could look into. And

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah, okay, thank you for that. I just want to point out that the

Yerba Buena SX80: the 3 feet is is the.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think, the intermediate curve. Correct. So you don’t have much safety factor there, and you also, as the staff pointed out, this is a V zone

Yerba Buena SX80: which means you have a high velocity wave action which

Yerba Buena SX80: requires a special foundation. If and when the building is in that zone in the future has to be on

Yerba Buena SX80: pile supports and needs a foot of free board, etc. So

Yerba Buena SX80: Well, I’ll talk about this later. But I’m a little concerned about the future exposure here.

Yerba Buena SX80: How much settlement is anticipated after development. I see there’s some fill to be placed.

Yerba Buena SX80: I understand from one of the comment letters that the area was surcharged to consolidate underlying fill.

Yerba Buena SX80: But if you add, fill, you’re going to probably consolidate the prior fill and or the subgrade further. Yes, the intent is to surcharge the site for 6 to 12 months. So then, after this, then, we will remove the surcharge material and then build the building, so there won’t be any future. So so the finished grade on your sections is your finished grade

Yerba Buena SX80: concluding any settlement?

Yerba Buena SX80: What?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yes, after after settlement, that’ll be our okay great. Thank you very much. That’s important. Why encroach into the shoreline band?

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m not trying to be smart there, but I’m just kind of wondering if that is necessary, because I’m a little concerned about that where you have a shoreline that seems kind of compressed in a V zone, and you’re only designing for 3 feet of sea level rise. Why encroach into Bcdc. Shoreline band, where it might be an opportunity to set back?

Yerba Buena SX80: I believe. Our team was trying to maximize the number of units within the the overall development. We were trying to get 100 units within that development and to and to do that with this product type a 3 story product type. That’s that’s how it laid out with roadways and Paseo’s and parking. And okay, I kind of thought that was the case. But.

Yerba Buena SX80: The tide levels in your present in your exhibits are a little off. I was looking at the Richmond Peninsula. You might just want to look at that. And and I’ll have more to say about that. But,

Yerba Buena SX80: it’s it’s what you presented. Wasn’t that far off of what you can get online.

Yerba Buena SX80: But those are from the

Yerba Buena SX80: the epic 83 to 2,001 which is going to be updated. So it’s like over 20 years old. So you can just expect that the sea levels now are actually a couple of tenths of a foot higher.

Yerba Buena SX80: And then, when those new title datum

Yerba Buena SX80: are released by Noaa. You’ll see that. So you probably just want to think about that. Get a coastal engineer or somebody to help you with that? Absolutely. Okay. Those are all my questions. Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, thank you. Other clarifying questions, Tom.

Yerba Buena SX80: Go ahead. Thanks.

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m confused on on something here in the letters that we’ve received.

Yerba Buena SX80: we have a letter from sorry.

Yerba Buena SX80: Miller Star regalia, and it talks about

Yerba Buena SX80: the pro the land use application

Yerba Buena SX80: and that it’s been deemed complete under the permit. Streaming

Yerba Buena SX80: act, etc. And that is consistent with cities.

Yerba Buena SX80: land use, regulations, etc. So it makes it sound like everything’s going great.

Yerba Buena SX80: Then we received another letter that said that there had been no response from the city

Yerba Buena SX80: to the application, and it probably is kind of this is ha! If it’s happened, it’s happened by default.

Yerba Buena SX80: because there was, there is no position

Yerba Buena SX80: from the city. So my question is, what? What is the the actual legal status in that regard? And has there been

Yerba Buena SX80: contact with the city? Is there a level of buy-in and and discussion going on with the city.

Yerba Buena SX80: We’ve been in regular contact with the city we’ve met with City before filing any applications. We’ve reached out and communicated with the city at various points. The city has

Yerba Buena SX80: largely, in my view, gone dark on us, but the legal status of the project with respect to the city is exactly, as I explained briefly, the Permit streamlining act which has been on the deck, on the statutes for decades provides that when you file a development application. An agency has 30 days to respond to that application and to determine, based on its checklist whether the application is complete or not.

Yerba Buena SX80: If they don’t provide such a determination. The application is deemed complete as a matter of law, and the Housing Accountability Act under recent changes. That I was involved in several years ago has a provision. That’s a similar provision that says that a project like this, that’s 150 units or less.

Yerba Buena SX80: Once the application is deemed complete. The agency has 30 days to determine. This is in government Code section 6, 5, 5, 8 9.5 J. 2 has 30 days to determine whether the application is consistent with its land use regulations, and if they believe the application is not consistent, they need to provide a letter to the applicant citing the provisions that they believe that are at issue, and explaining why they believe the application is not

Yerba Buena SX80: consistent. And if an agency does not do that. Then you’re deemed consistent as a matter of law. That also happened in Richmond. So that is why these. That’s why it came up earlier, and that’s why I brought up those 2 significant legal factors. That’s

Yerba Buena SX80: sets the stage for for the for the project.

Yerba Buena SX80: just a follow up. What is the plan going forward with city then. And it’s done via board and all that, because you’re doing a concurrent process right? Bcdc and city, yeah, we’ve also filed Ceqa documentation with the city that’s been prepared by one of the strong, regular

Yerba Buena SX80: consultants that prepare sequel documentation. We provided that to the city as well. I believe we’ve actually just now gotten, or the consultant has now just received comments on that documentation that we provided a number of months ago. We’re not privy to that information at this point. But environmental review, as you know, environmental SQL review can happen at eirs, mitigating exemptions, etc.

Yerba Buena SX80: We’ve provided environmental documentation, and I believe the city has just provided feedback, finally, to the consultant. But we need to coordinate with the city and try to figure out what the process is going to be with respect to the city going forward in terms of its hearing process.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thanks. You’re welcome.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. Kristen, go ahead. So this is a this is a pud you’ve submitted, or are you looking for? Is there any environmental clearances you need? Or do you anticipate any? This is no Pud is a form of rezoning. This project requires a subdivision map.

Yerba Buena SX80: It may require design review, but those are the only city approvals that are needed for this project, and even a non legislative approval cannot involve discretion as this one does. And as a result, Ceqa is on the table for that reason. So again, we’ve prepared our outside consultant has prepared documentation, demonstrating that the project is eligible for the infill exemption under Ceqa, as well as

Yerba Buena SX80: separately satisfying 2 other SQL. Streamlining provisions, 1, 5, 1, 6, 8, and 1, 5, 1, 8, 3 of the SQL. Guidelines, which are for essentially for projects that are consistent with the density levels established in a

Yerba Buena SX80: a local planning document, like a general plan for which an environmental documentation was prepared, where the project will not have new

Yerba Buena SX80: significant impacts that weren’t already previously identified, which which is true here. This project will not have more impacts than we’re already analyzed in the city’s sequel documents for its general planning. Ir. Thank you. Just reading between the lines on all of this. It’s my guess that folks in the area are looking for something more dense and maybe more mixed. Use

Yerba Buena SX80: and I’m making the assumption that you’re planning single family homes because those are

Yerba Buena SX80: probably what’s pencilling. Well, in this economy, where multifamily housing is not pencilling well, is that that’s the kind of approach here.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, you have to have a project that makes financial sense, and

Yerba Buena SX80: for better or worse. Unfortunately, many times projects at higher densities are not financially feasible and won’t happen for decades. If ever. This is a site, I believe other developers, to my understanding, have looked at this site as well. And if the obligation is to develop it.

Yerba Buena SX80: something near a hundred 25 units per acre. Nothing will happen. The site will sit vacant for decades.

Yerba Buena SX80: This, this is what’s financially feasible.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay. And then my last question is, there was mention of the Marina way. Wellness trail is the is the way that’s being incorporated through the adjacent street, or how is that kind of being incorporated into the what? What’s the vision for that trail? And then how is that being incorporated?

Yerba Buena SX80: Excuse me, Mike is actually working with placeworks and the trust for public land on that, so he can answer a little bit more in detail. But at this point it we’re looking at doing it on the road. However, we’re kind of talking a little bit about maybe taking that off off street and and putting in a class one. Yeah, is that what we’re doing?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, currently, right now, it’s just designed as a shared street at the end of Marina way, south in front of our project, because that’s what fits with the city and their budget. And then it connects into the bay trail as it continues down the end, and the vision for the Marina way. Wellness trail is like a really safe multimodal path, the ultimate vision. Correct? Yeah. All the way from nodes or something along it is that is that correct? Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah, there’s there’s a section of the Welles trail that has been installed. And so it has separated bikeways. And then, as there’s a section that’s going to have that as well. But at this end they’re trying to maximize in the iron Triangle neighborhood, the separated because the traffic numbers are really low at the end of the street.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think that was yeah. It’s a limit on space as well, because there’s existing parking at the end of the terminal marina way south. So there’s no room to put in

Yerba Buena SX80: a protected bikeway. So that’s 1 of the design modifications to make it work. Okay, thank you. Those are all my questions. Yeah, I just want to confirm. So all the the homes on this site are for sale. Is that correct? Okay? And then there’s an affordable component to that.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, I know you went through that quickly. Can you just tell us how that how that works

Yerba Buena SX80: below market rate. For sale units.

Yerba Buena SX80: Let’s see. So we have 10% would be the low income. I’m sorry. 30%, 30 units. Sorry.

Yerba Buena SX80: it’s 10% and 30 30 adus. Is that correct? Yeah, it’s 10% of the housing units.

Yerba Buena SX80: And to clarify that when I read that description, it looked like it read as if

Yerba Buena SX80: the the adus it was 10% of the adus. But how does it split out between the larger homes and the adus.

Yerba Buena SX80: Sorry. Yeah. My apologies. It’s currently 10%

Yerba Buena SX80: of of the proposed home. So that would be 7 of the single family homes. And that is, I believe that is a prerequisite of the city that we followed.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay. And then thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: let’s see, also was mentioned that it would be maintained by the developer. Is that the waterfront

Yerba Buena SX80: portion, the frontage? Or is that the whole site? Or

Yerba Buena SX80: can you give me a detail on that, as in past projects within the city of Richmond, the Homeowners Association would take care of the area that is part of their property, but it would be public access.

Yerba Buena SX80: So everything, including the the Bay trail as well. The Bay trail itself has been, is maintained by the city of Richmond, the esplanade, the concrete esplanade and the lighting. That’s part of a landscape and lighting district, Marina Bay landscape and lighting district that takes care of that. And then I have one final question, is it possible to pull up a Site plan?

Yerba Buena SX80: I was just curious. If if let’s say, if you took one of the Northern units in the middle. And and you could just walk us through. How does that person get to the to the water?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, no worries.

Yerba Buena SX80: This is

Yerba Buena SX80: alright. So this area. So

Yerba Buena SX80: I apologize. So what we have are the north, South. I’m sorry. East, west we have these Paseo’s. I’m going to just delete the you can see that all these walkways, all these Paseo’s come down here

Yerba Buena SX80: to this area right along the Wellness trail, and then there are sidewalks on both sides that come down, and there’s a crosswalk, and this is the main funneling point here, and then there’s also sidewalks right along the inside that come out.

Yerba Buena SX80: There’s a little boardwalk right here.

Yerba Buena SX80: Oh, God, sorry I have an old

Yerba Buena SX80: copy. There’s a boardwalk here, there’s a walkway here, there’s you know, so so there are multiple points

Yerba Buena SX80: that people can get through.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, I was just noticing that the green areas, the Paseo’s connect to the to the road, not to the water, and I’m sure you must have had some conversations about that. Maybe you could just walk us through the thought process there. Okay, so we have them connecting to the Wellness trail as well as there’s the sidewalks that go right down along each side that go right to the water.

Yerba Buena SX80: Let me just delete that. There we go. Now you can see it a little bit better.

Yerba Buena SX80: First.st

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, it’s really

Yerba Buena SX80: It gets down to kind of a simple density issue of. If you’re gonna turn those sales the other way and have to get the car circulation in there and stuff like that, it would just require a lot more roadway and therefore less green space and fewer homes. So this was a way of trying to really get maximum

Yerba Buena SX80: efficiency out of the vehicular circulation. So we need the most room for open space residences and things like that. And we thought that the and the Paseo’s filtering to either out to Marina Bay, south, or to that interior street, provides a good, efficient.

Yerba Buena SX80: clear access to the water.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay? And those sidewalks are what like bye, 6 feet something like that.

Yerba Buena SX80: 5 feet 5 feet. Got it? Okay. Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Stefan, thanks, Jacinta. I just have one question related to adaptation.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think, if I understand, in the staff presentation, the 66 inch end of century condition.

Yerba Buena SX80: there’s some expectation of overtopping onto the bay trail.

Yerba Buena SX80: Is, has the applicant considered adaptation strategies, if and when

Yerba Buena SX80: the bay trail frontage would not be accessible.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, that’s where we have an additional path adjacent to the homes. That is a public access path, and that is up at a higher elevation. 3 feet above 4 feet above the

Yerba Buena SX80: existing bay trail.

Yerba Buena SX80: So for sea level rise of the adaptation we’re is, is that the line that’s adjacent to the red line on the plan? Yes, yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: And so the distance between the front of the units, and that path is

Yerba Buena SX80: so. It’s right. That path is right adjacent to the. So the front yard opens up to that path, and that’s a public access path.

Yerba Buena SX80: And then it connects to Marina way South cul-de-sac all the way down.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, I’m just going to. I just want to clarify a couple of things. If you could bring up that site plan again.

Yerba Buena SX80: It was just difficult in the package to actually see the details.

Yerba Buena SX80: Look, I think we’ve got online people participate participating. So if you could go back to the Site plan.

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah. Now, if you could just shift, well, I’m just gonna say, shift up. Yeah. And then if you could zoom in on the area immediately adjacent the Rosie, the Riveter Museum.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. Are you able to enlarge that at all

Yerba Buena SX80: right? So so just to walk.

Yerba Buena SX80: Just so, I understand there is a basically a a service.

Yerba Buena SX80: I don’t know if you’re calling that a paseo as well. But it’s the service road between the 2 units. So that’s the garage that people go in and out of. And when you get to the end, can you just walk me through how people actually back around and turn around and get in and out?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, the the the alleyway extends a little, you know, 2, 3, 4 feet beyond the where the garage door is, and that’s a pretty standard thing in parking lots and things like that where somebody’s backs out, and they have room that that

Yerba Buena SX80: between their garage door and the curb on the other side there’s at least 24 feet, which is pretty standard dimension for aisles. Drive aisles and things like that. So somebody does have the room to back up

Yerba Buena SX80: and then drive out directly.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay. And then, as we as we move, I’m just gonna say, left here, towards the bay trail and the 100 foot shoreline band. And just for the benefit of everyone. Looking at this.

Yerba Buena SX80: the 100 foot shoreline band is that purple line right there? Correct? Yeah. So

Yerba Buena SX80: so the 100 foot shoreline band actually intersects with the front side of the Rosy the, I should say, about halfway along the Rosy, the Riveter Museum.

Yerba Buena SX80: and then the path that I think, Stefan, to your question. The path that we we’re told is the

Yerba Buena SX80: the path that would, you know, be an adaptation public access path

Yerba Buena SX80: then extends up, but doesn’t. It’s at the moment it just cuts back into a house? Yeah. Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: But I did have another question. So

Yerba Buena SX80: just from a design standpoint. Perhaps the architect could could explain. Front versus back versus side. It looks on the elevations like the sides. Really a typical side on it’s very plain elevation correct. Nothing much going on there, except.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, a couple of bathroom windows, or something like that bathroom windows, some some bedroom window, some additional bedside bedroom windows look real quickly at the second level, where the main living spaces are. I think we’ve got at least some windows into the living rooms and dining rooms and things like that. But

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s really dictated a lot by what the

Yerba Buena SX80: anticipated furniture arrangements will be, and stuff like that inside the in the inside the houses, trying to make some furnishable. Yeah, I mean, so I mean, it really looks to me like the intention architecturally is that you know the front of the house which you would expect is is facing the great views, and you know the amenity in the trail, and so on. So for the owners of each of those houses they have.

Yerba Buena SX80: Can you just describe how how you would describe to them what their front yard is

Yerba Buena SX80: it’s there’s the the upper level walkway that that Michael was describing, and then there’s a a small

Yerba Buena SX80: landscape band in between that and their front porch, and so that would essentially be their front yard. It’s

Yerba Buena SX80: so. So that that’s what they would imagine is their private garden, if you like, versus the public space. I guess, in the sense that it’s on their lot. Yeah, it’s it’s made. You guys can correct me if I’m wrong. But that’s a landscape, the landscape that would be maintained by the Homeowners Association. So it’s not

Yerba Buena SX80: well is the property line, the red line

Yerba Buena SX80: it? That’s the lot, not the property line, but the lot line. So the existing

Yerba Buena SX80: property line. I don’t see it on this retentional.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think their lot line, I think, actually, is the back of the sidewalk. Yeah, okay, so yeah, right, the lot line is the red line. But yeah, the property line is that dashed black line in the middle of the bay trail. Okay? Just so, just so we clear on exactly what’s going on here. Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, yes, Stefan, go ahead.

Yerba Buena SX80: Understanding that I believe that this site has a minimum density requirement. Do you do you agree with that statement

Yerba Buena SX80: that the Cm 5 has a minimum density requirement of 40 dwelling into the acre.

Yerba Buena SX80: The the regulation here is the general plan, which is 0 to 125, and again the zoning, the zoning says, 40 to 125. But the general plan, the general plan is a higher level document in California land use law, and again, it’s been deemed consistent with the city’s regulations legally. So, the general plan allowing

Yerba Buena SX80: down to 0, allows the minimum density requirement of 40 to not be applicable. Correct.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, that was hopeful to see that in large. So thank you for that.

Yerba Buena SX80: that’s the only question I have, I think. Let me just double check that.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, okay, so I think that concludes clarifying questions. We will now move to public comment.

Yerba Buena SX80: And we have, received a number of public comments.

Yerba Buena SX80: written comments. And then we have in person or online comments. So actually, should we do the in person 1st and then walk through the submitted comments, we’ll do in person, then online. And then anybody who hasn’t

Yerba Buena SX80: readdress their comments that they submitted. I will summarize those comments. Excellent! Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Alright. Jordan, the stabler cool.

Yerba Buena SX80: So hit the button. Okay, got you? Good. Good evening, everyone. Boy, with all these blinking lights. I feel like I’m in the house soup computer.

Yerba Buena SX80: Anyway, I’m a my name’s Jordan distabler. I’m a resident of the Point Richmond district of Richmond, and I’ve been resident there for 10 years, and from Berkeley originally, and for what it’s worth. My background is masters in landscape architecture. And I served on the Berkeley City Planning Commission.

Yerba Buena SX80: You know. It’s my understanding that the current iteration of this project has evolved to this point in the planning process due in large part to the city of Richmond’s somewhat dysfunctional aspect of failing to submit a project review letter in a timely fashion.

Yerba Buena SX80: And it’s my understanding, you know. I’m all for housing, being built on the site. I don’t have any criticisms of this this current iteration. However, I think it’s totally inappropriate to be building single family housing

Yerba Buena SX80: on a site that is in per the general plan of 2030 city general plan is designating that as a high intensity usage area, and particularly a transit oriented development site in the sense that the Richmond Ferry terminal is right, you know, within a thousand feet.

Yerba Buena SX80: and it makes no sense. And I realize that maybe the the financials don’t pan out to a higher density project at this point in time. I say, you know, there’s a growing demand for housing.

Yerba Buena SX80: and it seems a shame to delegate waterfront living to single family housing, when I think more people should be able to live on the

Yerba Buena SX80: on the shoreline in higher density medium to high density. I’m totally fine with that and I think we can do better here. And so I’m really against this current iteration. Nothing personal, but I think we can do better, and I’m just disappointed in the city of Richmond. We’re not doing their their jobs, in my opinion.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, there’s like, I said. There’s a lot of dysfunction in that city, but I don’t think we should suffer for that

Yerba Buena SX80: because once these houses are built. They’re going to be there for decades, and it’s a missed opportunity as far as I’m concerned. So thank you very much.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you. Jordan.

Yerba Buena SX80: I just want to offer anyone online. If you could raise your hand for public comment.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, thank you. I have 2 comments. One is the 1st one is Bruce Brubaker.

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m going to unmute mute. If you could state your name and affiliation, and you’ll have 3 min.

Bruce Brubaker: Hello! Can you hear me?

Yerba Buena SX80: Yes, we can hear you.

Bruce Brubaker: Thank you. I am going to make a couple comments about the Richmond Wellness Trail.

Bruce Brubaker: The way the Wellness trail is being planned currently is a Class 4,

Bruce Brubaker: protected bike lane on each side, north of Hall Street.

Bruce Brubaker: where this project is, is proposed to be a class 3. Sherro’s project and

Bruce Brubaker: I have 3 points to make. About that. One is to switch from the class 4 lanes down to a share. Rows is confusing for bus cyclists

Bruce Brubaker: and you know, just isn’t clear and might be hazardous to make that switch.

Bruce Brubaker: I want to also make the point that there’s going to be additional traffic here. If this project moves forward.

Bruce Brubaker: That will be using that street where the where the share owes is

Bruce Brubaker: are not only coming into the street. But there’s additional traffic now, because of this project. All vehicles entering the project will be going down that street Marine way south to go into the project. So there’s additional traffic there. I also want to point out that the plan shows that there’s perpendicular parking

Bruce Brubaker: that the project is planning along that stretch of Marina way south, so that cars would actually back up into the street where there are sherrows

Bruce Brubaker: and bikes are sharing with with the vehicles. So I think I think that

Bruce Brubaker: the the project should have a better connection from the Wellness trail north of Hall to the Bay trail rather than going to Sherrow’s, and one of the ways that that could happen

Bruce Brubaker: is to continue the Class 4 trail

Bruce Brubaker: to the bay trail, and that would mean reducing or eliminating some parking, some parallel parking

Bruce Brubaker: on a block, and another way to do it would be to to make it a more slow shared street, so in some way change the paving.

Bruce Brubaker: or make additional efforts to narrow the street in a way that makes it safe for cars and vehicles to share. So

Bruce Brubaker: that’s my comment. Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you very much.

Yerba Buena SX80: Let’s see.

Yerba Buena SX80: Next, I have Ahmad Anderson.

Yerba Buena SX80: Do you want to do for sex? Oh, I thought you wanted to do that. Okay?

Yerba Buena SX80: Oh, okay, to unlock them. Okay.

Yerba Buena SX80: Sorry about that, Ahmad. You’ll you’re next. If you could please state your name and affiliation, you’ll have 3 min. Thank you.

Ahmad Anderson (he,his,him): Good evening. My name is Aman Anderson. I am a former economic development chair of the Economic Development Commission for the City of Richmond. Also, I’ll give you some background. My mom was the former mayor of the city of Richmond, who led the drive to bring the ferry back to the city of Richmond.

Ahmad Anderson (he,his,him): with the hopes that there would be this opportunity, not necessarily for single housing, but knowing the need of crisis for housing, as we begin to look at the general plan and the great, the greatness need for a mixed use.

Ahmad Anderson (he,his,him): The other thought process is, I’m concerned, like the 1st caller, that the city of Richmond slept on this opportunity to hear the voice of the people and the voice of the people who were concerned about not only congestion, but also seeing that way for the use of transportation

Ahmad Anderson (he,his,him): between the iron triangle, safety for bicyclists, safety for commuters at the same time, but most importantly, the voice of the people have said, single family housing is not the direction they want to go

Ahmad Anderson (he,his,him): from Economic Development Commissioner standpoint. I I do agree that we in the city of Richmond. We do have some dysfunctions, but there are voices that are crying out for you to take a moment to pause. Think about the good that this can do if we take a moment to really step back and focus

Ahmad Anderson (he,his,him): on what the folks need in the city of Richmond from housing, better transportation, safety, and environmental concerns as well. I thank you very much for your time, and have a good night.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you very much.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you. Next I have Bruce Bayard

Yerba Buena SX80: going to unmute you, and you have 3 min.

Bruce Beyaert: Am I unmuted.

Yerba Buena SX80: You are unmuted. We can hear you.

Bruce Beyaert: Thank you. Chair Mccann, members of the board. My name is Bruce Byert. I’m the chair of track. The trails for Richmond Action Committee.

Bruce Beyaert: First.st I’d like to say that we support the comments made by Lee. Ho! Of Mtc’s Bay Trail group.

Bruce Beyaert: They’re very good and include the fact that bay trail should be widened to comply with the current design guidelines, and, moreover, it seems, from the staff presentation it should be elevated to allow for sea level rise. If I could have sheet 6 of the plans, please. I’d like to address the need

Bruce Beyaert: to provide. Move the development back. So there’s more public access.

Bruce Beyaert: If you look at sheet 6 project sections, you will see it’s counted as public space.

Bruce Beyaert: The landscaping adjacent to the front of the house. The front door of the house is public space. If you can believe that

Bruce Beyaert: in addition, the 5 foot wide sidewalk is deemed public space, and that is how people and service personnel and deliveries get to the front door of the house. How is that public space?

Bruce Beyaert: In fact, you see the cross section here. There is, in fact, only about 15 to 20 foot

Bruce Beyaert: of the private property

Bruce Beyaert: inland of the of the property line that is really accessible public street, other than the

Bruce Beyaert: 11 or 12 feet that’s adjacent to the front wall of the house.

Bruce Beyaert: The city of Richmond’s shoreline overlay district zoning

Bruce Beyaert: requires that there be no non-marine non water related property.

Yerba Buena SX80: Within the 100 foot band, but unfortunately that was legally deemed complete. So I hope you can remedy that.

Bruce Beyaert: By moving the houses back out of the 100 foot band, as well as a sidewalk and landscaping adjacent to the house, and providing access to the house.

Bruce Beyaert: This clearly sure provided maximum feasible public access to the shoreline.

Bruce Beyaert: It’s very strange that the only way that people can get to their front door is using a public path.

Bruce Beyaert: and the public will not feel it to be very public. Walking immediately adjacent to somebody’s front door

Bruce Beyaert: and their front yard 6 foot wide landscaping

Bruce Beyaert: site. So thank you very much for this opportunity to comment, and I hope that the problems in this plan can be remedied by Bcdc.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Yerba Buena SX80: Chair. That’s the end of public comments online. Okay, thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Additionally, Staff received the following public comments that have been distributed to the board and posted to the website in the order of reception from Tom Butt, a Richmond Resident commented that

Yerba Buena SX80: the design is a suburban development of 20 units, an acre on a site that is supposed to be a dense transit, oriented development. The design does not take advantage of its base setting in that most of the homes have no water view, and look across the street at other houses, and that the houses located within the 100 foot

Yerba Buena SX80: within 100 feet of the mean high water line conflicts with the city’s shoreline overlay district ordinance for allowable structures that States quote no non water. Related structures are permitted outright within the 100 foot tidal buffer.

Yerba Buena SX80: Lee, Wo. From Mtc. Bay trail commented that the proposed project will have a significant impact on the level of use and demand for the bay trail, with the additional units. In addition to existing high use and demand from nearby destinations. Consider increasing the capacity of the bay trail. Currently, it’s roughly 12 feet in width, but per the Bay trail guidelines it should be a minimum of 18 foot corridor with additional width. Considered for areas of higher use.

Yerba Buena SX80: there is opportunity to improve the existing nearby bay trail, since the pavement for the existing trail is in need of repaving and rebuilding.

Yerba Buena SX80: consider public access improvements that could, that would complement or support the Rosie. The riveter programs and activities, including an area to congregate rest and picnic.

Yerba Buena SX80: Other improvements may be interpretation materials or a themed play area. As there are a few playgrounds in the area

Yerba Buena SX80: amenities serving the bay trail like water, fill stations and bike repair stations.

Yerba Buena SX80: Consider additional seating and viewpoint viewpoint areas to take advantage of the natural viewpoints along this frontage.

Yerba Buena SX80: improving connections to the Bay trail and the shoreline in coordination with the Richmond Wellness trail and adjacent sites, and the current design creates a barrier between the bay trail and the public space and the development itself. He encourages more gradual and seamless transitions from private to public. In order to minimize the quote private feel of the waterfront

Yerba Buena SX80: we received a public comment from the attorney for the developer, Brian Winter. He’s gone over his comments, so I won’t repeat those

Yerba Buena SX80: from the Trust for public land. They’re the developers of the Richmond Wellness Trail.

Yerba Buena SX80: they commented. The proposed Marina Point development greatly diminishes sight lines to the shoreline and falls short of enhancing public access and use of the waterfront open space. The proximity of the proposed homes to the public waterfront and bay trail disrupts the visual and physical connection.

Yerba Buena SX80: The proposed housing development does not acknowledge the adjacency to the Rosie of the River National Historic Park site. It diminishes the Museum building and its visibility and does not elevate the significance of the site.

Yerba Buena SX80: The small picnic area and play areas on the southeast side of the project site are not well integrated into the public interface with the Bay trail, and should be reconsidered to adequately serve the needs of trail users and the community.

Yerba Buena SX80: The proposed pull-in parking along Marina way, south conflicts with the trails shared Bike Lane, creating safety hazards. There are also concerns that the vehicular traffic in and out of the development will further compromise cyclist and pedestrian safety in the area. Their recommendations include providing a larger, buffer zone

Yerba Buena SX80: along the shoreline, enhancing the significance of the Rosa Riveter Museum, including providing better visual access, provide public park access, and incorporate the proposed park into the existing open space system as a publicly accessible space. Take bicycle safety measures, including reevaluating the Pull-in parking along Marina way south to reduce the conflicts of the Bike lane.

Yerba Buena SX80: We received a public comment from Bruce Bayer, who just did his own

Yerba Buena SX80: public comment. And then, finally, this afternoon we received a comment from Lyzel Ayon of Caltrans, stating the agency is interested in engaging in the multi-agency and regional collaboration to find multi-benefit solutions that protect vulnerable shorelines, communities infrastructure and the environment emphasizing that any adaptation measures should be coordinated and consistent with any potential countywide efforts for shoreline adaptation, climate adaptation and vulnerability assessments.

Yerba Buena SX80: Those were the letters that we received.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you, Ashley.

Yerba Buena SX80: and I do want to thank everyone who’s provided either in person or written comments. These are extremely helpful and valuable, because, I would have to say, you know, we really are at the beginning of a process here, even though it might seem like it’s a long way down the track. I noted that

Yerba Buena SX80: to date. There have been 3 public meetings held one with the community, and for a project of this importance significance, you know, per the general plan per many of the comments here. One would have to expect that there is a realistic, legitimate community process that will allow

Yerba Buena SX80: response from the proponent and and response in terms of you know how the development is approached. So thank you all for your comments.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, now, with that we’ll move to the board discussion and summary, and just for the proponents. This really is the opportunity for the board to share reactions, ideas. We don’t typically engage with the proponent during this stage of the meeting. But at the end of the meeting we do.

Yerba Buena SX80: You know we do provide an opportunity for the proponent to respond. So with that, I just want to frame this frame, this for the for the board, so that we are

Yerba Buena SX80: keeping ourselves on track here. At the beginning of the

Yerba Buena SX80: meeting we were given some guidance. Let me just get to the right piece of paper to make sure I stay on track.

Yerba Buena SX80: so the staff reminded us, and and the proponent as well, talked about the

Yerba Buena SX80: the core access, the core. Public access objectives that we always focus on.

Yerba Buena SX80: You know the degree that public access is public and fills public, the usability of the public access.

Yerba Buena SX80: the visual access making sure that it’s enhancing visual access to the bay and the shoreline enhancing the visual quality of the bay shoreline, the adjacent developments. In this case there are some very significant adjacent developments providing connections to continuity along the shoreline.

Yerba Buena SX80: and again, in this case it is at a very critical node. So we need to make sure we take that that particular point thoughtfully and carefully, taking advantage of the base setting.

Yerba Buena SX80: and then making sure that

Yerba Buena SX80: the public access is compatible with the wildlife wildlife. So Staff have asked us to

Yerba Buena SX80: focus in on 4 particular questions that will help staff as they continue to engage with this project. So the 1st question is, does the project design enhance the user’s access to, and the experience of the shoreline.

Yerba Buena SX80: And what what other opportunities are there to build connections, or to further improve the existing public access as part of the project.

Yerba Buena SX80: So that’s really wrapping. You know, our our dialogue should really really focus in on all related

Yerba Buena SX80: thoughts and questions in relation to access. Second question, does the project is designed provide sufficient capacity for future adaptation strategies?

Yerba Buena SX80: And what could be done to the current design? What could be incorporated to make sure that shoreline

Yerba Buena SX80: changes in the future are able to be absorbed.

Yerba Buena SX80: And then the 3rd question, Does does the landscaping and the fitness program along the eastern edge of the development, read as a public connection to the shoreline. And what design recommendations would we provide to encourage public use for these areas?

Yerba Buena SX80: And then some comments on the. We didn’t hear a lot of detail in the presentation, but any reaction to the proposed plant and material palettes which were in the package. So we should certainly comment on those.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay. So

Yerba Buena SX80: what I’d like to do as we usually do is just ask each member of the board to maybe focus in on particular aspects of any of these questions that you want to pick up on in in your comments. And then in our dialogue. So

Yerba Buena SX80: who would like to kick off kristen? Okay, thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think I have. Let’s see maybe 3 buckets of comments.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think. The 1st is about the waterfront itself, and the design of the waterfront and

Yerba Buena SX80: the kind of de minimis dimensions of that public access along the waterfront. And I think the fact that a few board members were alluding to in our earlier questions.

Yerba Buena SX80: that these paths are very narrow. They don’t feel very public, particularly the one that is sort of just a path to door yards and not really connecting

Yerba Buena SX80: between public paths. Public paths should connect to each other and have more permeability and accessibility, and I think at least one of these paths should at least meet the minimum bay trail dimensions.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think if we were aiming to have a great waterfront experience, it should at least meet the minimum Bcdc requirements which are the minimum dimensions. Sea level rise, access during sea level rise events, and it sounds like wave run up is a big issue. And so maybe just taking a 3 foot elevation is not quite actually providing the right level of access.

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s also difficult to say that this park.

Yerba Buena SX80: in this setting, next to the Rosie, the Riveter Museum, next to a ferry landing next to a kind of a commercial area and waterfront parks.

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s very difficult to say that this space is meeting public access.

Yerba Buena SX80: Given the encroachment of these townhomes into that 100 foot band, and also the very kind of minimal

Yerba Buena SX80: attention to design in that band. So I think those 2 things combined. It doesn’t feel generous spatially, and it doesn’t feel generous from a design perspective. And I think it’s really a missed opportunity. I mean

Yerba Buena SX80: this site. Actually, you’re kind of missing the thing that’s so great about this site, which is the waterfront.

Yerba Buena SX80: And in some ways this feels like a feasibility study turned into a master plan

Yerba Buena SX80: with some landscape around the edges.

Yerba Buena SX80: and not really a great master plan for such a fantastic waterfront site.

Yerba Buena SX80: And I really understand the feasibility issues right now with housing. It’s really, I mean, housing is hard to develop right now. But I do think that

Yerba Buena SX80: this site, is it? It’s sort of undermining its own value with the current design, particularly at the waterfront.

Yerba Buena SX80: And

Yerba Buena SX80: I guess one more. One more point just on access is, I do think that the bike lanes

Yerba Buena SX80: are not really meeting the goals of the Wellness trail, and having safer, more visible, more connected bike lanes.

Yerba Buena SX80: I I know it’s challenging sometimes within a section to get those bike lanes working. So maybe, look.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, beyond the street section itself.

Yerba Buena SX80: Maybe look at the site itself for how to get bike access to the waterfront more safely, particularly where the bike lanes are just kind of going straight through the cul-de-sac at the end. That feels

Yerba Buena SX80: sort of dangerous, actually and then just one more point about the density. It’s my understanding that

Yerba Buena SX80: actually, where

Yerba Buena SX80: general plan and zoning, where there’s inconsistency between general plan and zoning, the greater shall prevail. I believe that’s Ab. 2, 34, and the point of all of these State density bonuses is not to build housing at any cost. It’s to build more housing, more dense housing, more affordable housing. I’m not a lawyer. So obviously, I defer to the lawyers on this. But

Yerba Buena SX80: I do. It does sound like the intention of the city is to have a more dense

Yerba Buena SX80: mixed use kind of a node here, and so it’s hard to put that together with the kind of minimal waterfront design and say that this is meeting the intent of all of the plans.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, these are good points. And I think,

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m just gonna sort of speak

Yerba Buena SX80: jump in. If you don’t agree with what I’m going to say, but I think the Board would

Yerba Buena SX80: have general agreement with what you’re you’ve just said so, I think, and and I like the way in which you have, you know, been very clear about the sort of the buckets of comments here.

Yerba Buena SX80: So I think what we should do is just continue to. I mean, I I continue to build out the other

Yerba Buena SX80: issues that are of concern relative to visual access safety access, the bay trail itself. Let’s let’s just keep moving on those important topics and others that are important, Tom, do you want to

Yerba Buena SX80: jump in?

Yerba Buena SX80: So, yeah, I think we all agree with the kind of the basic observations of

Yerba Buena SX80: how we appropriately feel that this plan is on this site.

Yerba Buena SX80: And

Yerba Buena SX80: I think this is probably the single, most valuable and important parcel in the whole city of Richmond.

Yerba Buena SX80: in terms of how this the future city is going to develop with respect

Yerba Buena SX80: to its number one visitor site which is rosy, the river. That’s a number one tourist attraction

Yerba Buena SX80: to the Craneway pavilion where the public activities are supported there, and

Yerba Buena SX80: the the position along the the waterfront, and of course the the ferry terminal.

Yerba Buena SX80: This is a new. This, you know, when people mention transit or in development. That’s what they’re talking about.

Yerba Buena SX80: Transportation, too.

Yerba Buena SX80: So it would seem to indicate what the plan, what the planning calls for, which is high intensity, mixed use, etc, etc. You know

Yerba Buena SX80: something that basically possible in this market.

Yerba Buena SX80: Now, I don’t know if that’s really true. I know people’s judgment developers. Judgment in Richmond is that only single family housing can work, and I don’t know if I understand or believe that. But that’s what comes through.

Yerba Buena SX80: I know that David Trachtenberg has done a pretty nice project called the Point.

Yerba Buena SX80: with a whole series of 3 story attached townhouses with a lot more density, and they’ve he’s also provided space for a public cafe and some other things that are amenities for the public.

Yerba Buena SX80: I feel like the pushing into the shoreline band

Yerba Buena SX80: when we approve stuff like that is because the there’s something the public’s getting. We’re not getting any public like anything out of the units being over the line.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think that it should pull back

Yerba Buena SX80: behind the line number one. It should be a major public promenade of the amenities and scale that Marcia talked about already, but much more expanded

Yerba Buena SX80: building on this incredible history, and the views and the experience of the public expanding down the shoreline from from Rosa River, expanding from Cranley Pavilion

Yerba Buena SX80: to create a public amenity, a piece of public domain

Yerba Buena SX80: that is really major and significant.

Yerba Buena SX80: But it it’s true that if if you require all these things, then how’s project gonna pencil? Just take our ball and go home.

Yerba Buena SX80: I would offer personally that I would trade

Yerba Buena SX80: won the 1st Level facing out onto this promenade

Yerba Buena SX80: for space, which is a public use.

Yerba Buena SX80: whether it’s public, supporting, commercial or retail, or anything like that, and then stack up

Yerba Buena SX80: on top of that to the degree possible, and then go forward with the plan. Maybe that would pencil. Maybe this could be a negotiation that could be considered in the current market. Understanding where we are, I’d rather see

Yerba Buena SX80: much more dense project, but I don’t not sure it’ll ever happen, and we are under pressure to approve

Yerba Buena SX80: housing in this state. Now, there’s there’s a lot of legislation, and

Yerba Buena SX80: so forth, that is pushing hard on this, and people that don’t get with it, you know, they just get pushed to the side also. So I think there’s a

Yerba Buena SX80: potential negotiation over public domain that could be productive

Yerba Buena SX80: for this site and instill pencil for your project. Maybe

Yerba Buena SX80: that’s why I have a lot of things to say. But that’s my main point.

Yerba Buena SX80: Tom, can I build on that just and if we could get the plan up.

Yerba Buena SX80: if someone could put the plan up

Yerba Buena SX80: because, Tom, one of the things that I think you know, we’re all gonna be saying in different ways, you know, is the.

Yerba Buena SX80: But with the same conclusion is that the fact that so much of the housing is inside the 100 foot shoreline band that we simply run out of room to do the things that are the basic provisions that need to occur within the 100 foot shoreline band. For a variety of reasons, visual access, public access, environmental conditions, adaptation, vulnerability. The list goes on, and so we are faced with

Yerba Buena SX80: in fact, I can’t even really think of a project that we’ve reviewed before that has this level of compromise in

Yerba Buena SX80: a section of the Bay trail which is in such an important area. Yeah. So

Yerba Buena SX80: I mean, one thing that occurred to me is, you know, in the art of compromise.

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m just gonna

Yerba Buena SX80: say something here that we may. You know this is just the sort of process that I would hope

Yerba Buena SX80: that the development team is going through. So if you think about the importance of the bay trail in this segment, and you look at

Yerba Buena SX80: the adjacent conditions to the Rosie, the Riverdo Museum, and it seems just

Yerba Buena SX80: impossible to me to have a single family home, you know, within

Yerba Buena SX80: I don’t know 8 feet 10 feet. Whatever the offset is from from that very important

Yerba Buena SX80: regionally, actually, nationally important venue. So you know, could you pick up those 4 houses?

Yerba Buena SX80: And could you say

Yerba Buena SX80: we’re going to? I mean, because this is for the people sitting over here. This is often the type of dialogue that we have.

Yerba Buena SX80: We’re going to give you something because it’s within, you know, we’re going to give you something, and you give us something. So if we took those 4 houses

Yerba Buena SX80: out

Yerba Buena SX80: on the basis that we want to create a meaningful plaza, a meaningful transition. Widen the bay trail, put in appropriate buffers, landscape it appropriately.

Yerba Buena SX80: and then there are 4 houses that in the developer’s world have to be put somewhere else to make the project stack up.

Yerba Buena SX80: Well.

Yerba Buena SX80: could you get creative, you know? Could you attach a couple of the houses. Could you rethink that park in the middle that, you know? Really? Do they need that park when there’s all the playgrounds and all of the waterfront to enjoy, and perhaps a really much, you know, a much bigger space. Now I’m just thinking aloud. But this is the sort of this is the sort of thing that I would hope a development team would be going through this, you know. Could you? Could you attach 5 or 6 houses at the back. And okay, let’s

Yerba Buena SX80: less money. But at the moment, you know, less expensive real estate. But at the moment they’re on the backside facing industrial developments, anyway. So what’s their sale price going to be like compared to you know the front? So

Yerba Buena SX80: this is the I just think that there is such a compromise on the bay trail and the

Yerba Buena SX80: and the shoreline band. As you progress towards the you know the core of this node that’s so critical for Richmond. So

Yerba Buena SX80: I’m going to stop there. But I’m just, you know, respond, please. Others, you know, to to this theoretical

Yerba Buena SX80: possibility that I’m putting out there.

Yerba Buena SX80: I like the approach. I mean, I, you know.

Yerba Buena SX80: thinking creatively about the site. Could you have more height in the back, and you would have attached units, but at the same time those units would have views that they don’t have now. So, you know, is there some way of you know, mixing it up a little bit.

Yerba Buena SX80: I I completely understand that having similar unit types, you know, repeated this many times, that there’s an economy of scale there. But you just kind of wonder if there’s if there’s some room

Yerba Buena SX80: for flexibility there.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, to get the units out of at least some units out of the shoreline band. I mean, we’re all practical people. We have

Yerba Buena SX80: lived working with projects that we need to succeed all of our careers. So you know the we’re not here to block. But but we are here to protect the public interests in the bay trail and

Yerba Buena SX80: and to protect the future in the face of sea level rise. And I just find that this current proposal is really difficult to accept the way it’s

Yerba Buena SX80: presented at the moment. So Stefan, jump in. Yeah, I just want to say. I mean, I think it’s

Yerba Buena SX80: I would like to say out loud that

Yerba Buena SX80: you know our our focus is on the

Yerba Buena SX80: public access and the nature of public space in the project.

Yerba Buena SX80: and we see many projects where the

Yerba Buena SX80: the the full benefit of the public space is not compromised by what’s

Yerba Buena SX80: proposed in the private portion of the project.

Yerba Buena SX80: and I think that what we’re struggling with here is that this is this feels very much like a case where what’s being proposed in the private portion of the project is really compromising.

Yerba Buena SX80: The potential for public space? So you know.

Yerba Buena SX80: it’s not in our nature to comment on

Yerba Buena SX80: on the buildings and the nature of the design.

Yerba Buena SX80: But I would say that maybe sort of the the assumption here that 100

Yerba Buena SX80: identical units should be the basis for the build out of the site.

Yerba Buena SX80: Is probably more central to a

Yerba Buena SX80: effective solution than in other locations.

Yerba Buena SX80: And I would say that

Yerba Buena SX80: Even this architect has done much more innovative fee, simple configurations

Yerba Buena SX80: within a few miles of the site

Yerba Buena SX80: that I think would bring benefit to this location.

Yerba Buena SX80: In Hercules there is the Bayside Development, which my memory is

Yerba Buena SX80: about 335 units on 13 acres, and it is one predominantly one and 2 units

Yerba Buena SX80: fee simple buildings, many of which are on

Yerba Buena SX80: 26 by 45 foot parcels.

Yerba Buena SX80: and that neighborhood now is over a decade old and feels very good.

Yerba Buena SX80: and one of the key elements, I think that makes that neighborhood special is that the the entry to the

Yerba Buena SX80: the units is actually separated, vertically from the street space.

Yerba Buena SX80: Through a sort of a traditional stoop design

Yerba Buena SX80: which this project, I think could benefit from

Yerba Buena SX80: and nearby the Bayside project is the promenade Development, which is now on almost 20 years old.

Yerba Buena SX80: Where there are fee simple townhouses over live workspaces, again on postage, stamp parcels, and that benefit from a situation where the alley

Yerba Buena SX80: is higher in elevation than the entry at the street, which is similar situation that you have.

Yerba Buena SX80: And both of those scenarios could provide you with a little bit more breathing room

Yerba Buena SX80: at the edge. And I think would also benefit from

Yerba Buena SX80: creating a more public condition without you needing to revert to

Yerba Buena SX80: a mixed use or non fee, simple configuration

Yerba Buena SX80: and so I would urge you to. I think, if you are going to

Yerba Buena SX80: continue to think about this site as a townhouse location for townhouses or

Yerba Buena SX80: houses in a townhouse configuration. I would urge you to think more creatively about the site planning, because I think that that would actually be instrumental in

Yerba Buena SX80: opening up the public view corridors and

Yerba Buena SX80: the public access at the shoreline that would

Yerba Buena SX80: meet many of the comments that we’ve made here today, but also that have been recorded in the letters from others.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thanks, Stefan. Bob. Go ahead.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you. See if I can

Yerba Buena SX80: look at people when I talk so. You know. So I’m a coastal engineer, civil engineer, and I’m really concerned about the limited amount of space

Yerba Buena SX80: for wave dissipation with sea level rise. I really the the bay trail

Yerba Buena SX80: will not be able to stay where it is with sea level rise. So there needs to be space to move it.

Yerba Buena SX80: and you haven’t, in my view, provided enough space for that.

Yerba Buena SX80: So I think you need I think there’s a need for an adaptation plan that addresses sea level rise 3 feet is, I would say, the minimum.

Yerba Buena SX80: and it should address higher amounts of sea level rise within the forecasting period

Yerba Buena SX80: or the life of the development

Yerba Buena SX80: and being careful to note that there are implications. If Fema mounts

Yerba Buena SX80: residential properties into the flood zone in the future

Yerba Buena SX80: they have. That’s a big issue for property owners.

Yerba Buena SX80: So besides, the fact that there’s a real risk of damage and anything they were to that those houses would not really be accessible during certain conditions.

Yerba Buena SX80: It wouldn’t be safe for people or bicycles or anything. So

Yerba Buena SX80: I don’t. I mean, I appreciate the

Yerba Buena SX80: interest in compromising with, you know, 5 of the units, but I think all the the Bayside units should be moved out of the shoreline band

Yerba Buena SX80: from my perspective as a coastal engineer, considering sea level rise. That’s kind of my, you know.

Yerba Buena SX80: strong opinion on this.

Yerba Buena SX80: I just don’t think it works

Yerba Buena SX80: plus it would. It’s a great site to have space.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. I mean, you can see down the bay

Yerba Buena SX80: it. One of the reasons why there. There are wave issues. There is because there is a fetch down into the bay, and when the winds blow out of the south during storms there are waves.

Yerba Buena SX80: I don’t see any profiles that show how deep the water is. I know, over at the Richmond Peninsula there’s a pretty good mud flat at low tide. I’m not sure that’s the case here.

Yerba Buena SX80: And so I’m also concerned that I don’t think this topic has been given adequate attention

Yerba Buena SX80: in the in the development of the project.

Yerba Buena SX80: So I’m a pretty strong negative

Yerba Buena SX80: vote on this on this plan.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. And Bob, just to be accurate, you know, I mean that

Yerba Buena SX80: throwing out, can you? That statement? Can you shift 4 of the houses? I mean the the real

Yerba Buena SX80: purpose of saying that is just to try and open. I like where you’re going with it. I it’s just that. I I you know it doesn’t really change where I’m coming from for everyone else to consider, and I just want to be really clear about it. I am an engineer. I’ve done a lot of coastal work. I’m not comfortable with the design. That’s this way, I feel about it.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay? So I think we’ve really covered the topic of access experience of the shoreline. And I would say, the level of detail in these submissions is extremely helpful, I think, to Staff as well. I don’t think we need to reiterate them, but there were a series of points made about.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, enhancing the quality of experience for the for people walking or or cycling, adequate seating, and so on, some excellent comments which I would just endorse all of the comments that were made on those from those aspects.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think, Bob, you’ve been addressing? Question 2. Very clearly.

Yerba Buena SX80: can I make a comment about 2? Yes, go ahead. Regarding the adaptation.

Yerba Buena SX80: So, Bob, you covered that super. Well, I just want to say that the mitigation, if there was any in the future that would happen by the Homeowners Association. So you know, that is a pretty big lift to do coastal engineering, you know, for a small group like that. And then with the 10% affordable units, it kind of reduces the pool that I think you could draw on to get funds, you know, to actually do that work.

Yerba Buena SX80: So if we’re already not as high above sea level as we would like to be, and that adaptation comes sooner than normal or sooner than we think, and it seems like sea level rise is always accelerating, not decreasing.

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s it’s not. It’s a logarithmic curve. I think that should be taken into account. Because this is for sale housing.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah. And just to make a

Yerba Buena SX80: just an additional point about that, you know, we we frequently

Yerba Buena SX80: fairly frequently see see projects where there is some incursion into the 100 foot shoreline band. But, you know, when it’s a parking garage or a

Yerba Buena SX80: office building or a restaurant, you know, we see all sorts of different buildings in that May come into the zone some distance, and

Yerba Buena SX80: we always take a different point of view with housing, because housing is a 24 HA day occupied use. It’s not, you know an office where people are there 9 to 5, and it’s, you know, not there on the weekends. And so there is a level of

Yerba Buena SX80: enhanced

Yerba Buena SX80: risk going back to question 2, you know, in relation to future adaptation. I just think the question is much more serious when it is housing versus other land uses. So

Yerba Buena SX80: just to make that point.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, just moving to question 3. There’s the fitness program along the corner of the development. And we saw we’ve seen. We have the plan here. We saw a rendering.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know. The fitness is there again, you know. Good to have the facilities very close to. It’s very. They’re very close to the house on the corner, and

Yerba Buena SX80: I guess everyone would coexist there. Yeah, if you can just go in a little further.

Yerba Buena SX80: I mean, I like the fact that that

Yerba Buena SX80: that I think the team’s done a nice job of putting something there. That bicycle

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, bicyclists and others can,

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, use? It’s a it’s a great functional area. I I

Yerba Buena SX80: I think that along well, just consistent with the comments we’ve made already. I think it’s it’s a fairly

Yerba Buena SX80: tight the way it’s positioned there. But

Yerba Buena SX80: any other thoughts on that to help the staff on this point, Tom.

Yerba Buena SX80: it’s working elsewhere. Put a fitness center there on the corner.

Yerba Buena SX80: It’s simple.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: Gary, any other thoughts on that are those private patios that are facing to the east. Well, the side. Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: And I, I there could be great changes. Well, there, I’m not quite sure against the path, like retaining more.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, yeah, I I don’t know what to say. I’m I think it’s good. The residents open to that to those green spaces. It does have a little bit the effect of making it feel more private, perhaps. Yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: I don’t think I would say to remove that. I guess it’s just something to to factor into the whole site plan and see how to compensate. And I think we’ve made comments pretty

Yerba Buena SX80: clearly now about sort of perception of private private versus public. And you know that’s something which is again a very fundamental concern of you know how people feel when they’re

Yerba Buena SX80: using the bay trail, biking or walking or exercising.

Yerba Buena SX80: I mean, they will be within very close proximity of houses.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think there’s a few things here that specifically.

Yerba Buena SX80: I mean, I would hope this whole area could become more generous and a little bit more

Yerba Buena SX80: thoughtful in terms of accessibility. I think a few specific things the way that this path that connects to the door fronts of each of those

Yerba Buena SX80: connects back to the sidewalk and doesn’t have any

Yerba Buena SX80: or many other cross connections between the bay trail, and this path, I think, helps make it feel much more privatized.

Yerba Buena SX80: I think the grade change makes it feel like a front walk for those units grade changes, Stefan pointed out, is a great way to differentiate between a public and private realm, and I think even having a stoop or some other kind of social distance between the front door and the

Yerba Buena SX80: a public path helps a lot.

Yerba Buena SX80: and then the fact that there is this kind of landscape moat between that path and then this other path, which is sort of seems like the public path, I think, also helps define that to make it feel much more private rather than a public path there

Yerba Buena SX80: and then, also the small scale of it. The fact that it’s, you know, kind of a

Yerba Buena SX80: interior sidewalk scale rather than a public path along the waterfront sort of scale. I think all of those features

Yerba Buena SX80: contribute to the fact that it feels that feels like a private frontage separated from a public path, and then on the bay trail portion of it. In the fact that there’s

Yerba Buena SX80: very little furniture. There’s almost no seating. There’s a kind of a small little gesture to a plaza entry

Yerba Buena SX80: to the interior of the site, but it again, because that kind of compresses, then, between these 2 single family homes that doesn’t feel sort of like an inviting access either. So a lot of kind of scale factors going into the way that this is feeling very privatized just to be specific. Yes, and I think the I mean, I want to commend the landscape architect on

Yerba Buena SX80: trying to include a program of lots of different activities.

Yerba Buena SX80: There’s just insufficient space to allow each of those activities to exist in a way that feels very comfortable in public. The plaza mid block. If we just go up a little more to where the mid block walk is or the mid

Yerba Buena SX80: development walkies.

Yerba Buena SX80: Yeah, just yeah. Where the plaza is. And the seating steps, you know, if you

Yerba Buena SX80: if you think about how people the general public would feel, you know. Let’s just say an educational group stop there. And 20 people sitting on those stairs. The relationship to the front door of the house is a matter of you know, it’s it’s 6 or 8 feet away. And

Yerba Buena SX80: I think again, just that perception of public and private and and uncomfortableness with that proximity or lack of sense of it being really public, will come into play there. It’s just too tight.

Yerba Buena SX80: So just a general question about the Site plan, I mean or not a question, but a comment.

Yerba Buena SX80: There’s something about those green spaces going east, West that that kind of you know. The view corridors into the property line and the Marina Marina way south.

Yerba Buena SX80: and if they were rotated 90 degrees, I completely understand that it compromises the density, as as you’ve said, and then the question is.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, could you do anything to compensate for that? If the if those green spaces were running north, south, or maybe there was one green space running north south. Then from from the

Yerba Buena SX80: bay trail, you know, you could get some visual borrowing into the site, even though it’s private, and I think it would still give a feeling of openness to people passing by if there were, you know.

Yerba Buena SX80: one or 2 of those events. And then

Yerba Buena SX80: which brings me to another comment about just the scale

Yerba Buena SX80: of the buildings in juxtaposition to the Ford plant. Which is this magnificent behemoth.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know. That’s gotten all these, you know, national honor awards, and you know it’s been decorated every way you could. You know William Mcdonough and Long Logan and Berkeley. It’s just

Yerba Buena SX80: magnificent piece of architecture, and there’s a scale juxtaposition there that I think does effect one’s

Yerba Buena SX80: ability to enjoy the site. I think it does have something to do with user. The enhancing, the user experience is what I’m really trying to address here. And if there were you know, attached units on the

Yerba Buena SX80: west side of the of B street. There, for example, that had, you know, it wasn’t such a jarring scale transition from the from the plant to the smaller fine grained houses. I actually think it would be better, you know, to have some more from the user experience on the bay trail. And yeah, yeah.

Yerba Buena SX80: and because I I do, I think that that property line on the west

Yerba Buena SX80: would there be a fence there? I think there’s a good chance there might be a fence there and and it’s it just doesn’t seem like a great, you know, for those units that are facing west. It’s it’s not. It’s not a fantastic experience, anyway. Maybe I don’t know.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, plant materials plant palette.

Yerba Buena SX80: Maybe we, if you wouldn’t mind. If if we could bring the Plant Pallet

Yerba Buena SX80: exhibit up, that would. That would be great interest, right?

Yerba Buena SX80: And I think one thing that would help me in a subsequent review, would be to just have a clearer

Yerba Buena SX80: designation of what is actually in the 100 Foot Shoreline Band Zone versus elsewhere. I mean? It’s a it’s a.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know. There’s a nice variety of plant material

Yerba Buena SX80: but I do think the you know, we should really favor the native plants

Yerba Buena SX80: on the alongside the bay trail.

Yerba Buena SX80: And I mean, there’s a zone that’s gonna get a massive blast of wind off the bay. This can be a little different than any of the other streets within, so that

Yerba Buena SX80: it’s both dryness and and massive wind, and a lot of takes a lot of abuse needs to be

Yerba Buena SX80: respond to that. Yeah, yeah. I haven’t studied the palette, but I I in general, I would

Yerba Buena SX80: tend to push it in a much more extreme way towards the durable, you know, and the drought tolerant. And, you know, address issues of climate change and assisted migration. You know, plants that are we’re used to seeing in the

Yerba Buena SX80: South and the Southwest are very rapidly making their way into the into the bay area. And, you know. Yeah, it’s it’s not only the wind and the and you know there’s just the durability of having plants in a public place. And and so I think I would

Yerba Buena SX80: tend towards you know more extreme choices. I you know there are certain things here that are very nice. There are maples, and maybe they’re in protected areas between the buildings and so on.

Yerba Buena SX80: But you know, I’m thinking about water use and and durability. Just make it easy for everyone. Yeah, yeah, this is not. I mean, there are plants in here that would certainly.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, could thrive in the you know, along the the waterfront.

Yerba Buena SX80: But I’m not seeing the sort of

Yerba Buena SX80: enough of the really hardy plants, or maybe, you know, we I it would just be helpful to see the plants

Yerba Buena SX80: separated into 2 zones. You know the public zone and the residential areas.

Yerba Buena SX80: I would just add that seeing Marsha’s work for I don’t know how 1015 years in Richmond being on the city of Richmond. Drb.

Yerba Buena SX80: This woman’s fully capable. You got the right person on the project. Got got the right team, too. Yeah, that’s true. So we don’t need to dig too deeply into this.

Yerba Buena SX80: We’re in safe hands. Good hands.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay? But we were asked that question by staff. So

Yerba Buena SX80: that’s our comments. Could I make comment on the

Yerba Buena SX80: on the planting? Yeah, this is kind of

Yerba Buena SX80: anecdotal. Yeah, I’m not a botanist or a landscape architect. I don’t usually do planting plans

Yerba Buena SX80: except for maybe a Restoration project

Yerba Buena SX80: but over at the Peninsula

Yerba Buena SX80: last time I walked around there.

Yerba Buena SX80: You know the Vincent Park and that area.

Yerba Buena SX80: There are a lot of lawns, and there there are these big geese that have taken over there, and they kind of interfere with

Yerba Buena SX80: some of the uses. And then the other thing I noticed, which

Yerba Buena SX80: I think just probably goes along with all the Riprap, is there all these ground squirrels

Yerba Buena SX80: in the shore rocks? And you know a lot of people think they’re cute and all that. But they’re not really a native. I don’t know that they’re they seem to be more of them than would normally exist.

Yerba Buena SX80: So I I just

Yerba Buena SX80: I didn’t see a lot of turf here. There’s a couple of little lawn pieces, but I see you have the coastal sage

Yerba Buena SX80: or a scrub whatever, and that seems

Yerba Buena SX80: much better than the big grassy lawns from my comment regarding the geese. It’s kind of a big deal. Actually, last time I walked over there it was pretty intimidating, you know, that the kids couldn’t go into the grass lawn because the geese were not not having it. So

Yerba Buena SX80: thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, look, I’m just going to.

Yerba Buena SX80: Just want to summarize a few points here.

Yerba Buena SX80: bearing in mind there’s a lot more that is very important. But just 3 or 4 things that I think are are

Yerba Buena SX80: major points relating to access and the

Yerba Buena SX80: the actual viability of the the bay trail in this area, and the 100 foot zone. So I think the 1st point I’d make is echoing Tom’s point. You know this is

Yerba Buena SX80: this is the most significant waterfront site in the city of Richmond. It is.

Yerba Buena SX80: you know, it’s part of a designated node.

Yerba Buena SX80: So I think.

Yerba Buena SX80: and it’s certainly transit oriented. It’s got a number of aspects related to it, including the relationship to the Rosie, the Riveter Museum. All of these things add up

Yerba Buena SX80: to something that

Yerba Buena SX80: I think we need to see further examination of from the proponent to see how the Site plan could respond to that very critical point from the public enhancement and public experience, standpoint and access. And then I think the second critical point is that the

Yerba Buena SX80: the program that is in the that is shown on the plan in the within the bay trail is a reasonable plan. The landscape architects done as good a job as as could be done within the constraints of a much narrower area than we would typically see

Yerba Buena SX80: but it’s not sufficient to be able to have the type of user experience that. And and the practical aspects of circulation and view experience. That we need to see in a plan. So somehow.

Yerba Buena SX80: there needs to be some more space created. And I think the 3rd point is related to

Yerba Buena SX80: adaptation and resiliency. And you know, making sure that that, the Site Plan

Yerba Buena SX80: is going to be safe and minimize risk for the future in future. People with future homeowners who will live in this development

Yerba Buena SX80: and would expect to live there for generations. And you know I think we have to be very responsible about

Yerba Buena SX80: taking a you know, we need to have a position

Yerba Buena SX80: in relation to how the site will adapt, how the path. Can the bay trail can be relocated?

Yerba Buena SX80: I would add to that that the the higher level front access path, the public path adjacent immediately adjacent the houses is just not

Yerba Buena SX80: It doesn’t convey an adequate sense of public nature, and the width of the path is not sufficient.

Yerba Buena SX80: so that needs to be reviewed as well.

Yerba Buena SX80: and there are specific points that

Yerba Buena SX80: are elsewhere. But I mean they’re the ones that rise to the top for me. Does that capture it. Have I left something critical out?

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay? So just to help Staff as you continue forward on this nice.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay? Look at, if we’ve got, I think we’ve covered everything at this point. So at this point we would

Yerba Buena SX80: ask Ashley, we can ask the proponents to respond at this point just a brief response on what you’ve heard.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you for the comments. This is helpful for us. We are one of the things I did want to address is the public comments we did reach out to the Marina Bay Neighborhood Council, the Richmond Coordinating Council. We went through the city of Richmond process, and it’s kind of an interesting response that we got from them. Most of the people were saying.

Yerba Buena SX80: we don’t want density. We want it to look just like our our development and but then some people like a planning commissioner that was on

Yerba Buena SX80: planning commission forever and ever, she was saying, well, we want it to be the dense. We want it dense. But the residents in Marina Bay we don’t want traffic. We don’t want more housing. So it was really interesting to hear that. So I wanted to share that with you. When we talked to the National Park Service they were mostly concerned about the interpretation and bringing that interpretation along, so that that was interesting. So I appreciate your comments about more outreach

Yerba Buena SX80: related to that. We also the the Wellness trail. It’s kind of interesting. Because the commenter was the designer on the width of the trail, and it being on street, and there’s existing parking, and you know it was kind of interesting. So we’ll work with them because we’re sub consultants to them for that and say, Well.

Yerba Buena SX80: okay, that let’s work on that so so we will look at. Look at the off-site impacts. And I don’t know if I necessarily have any other comments related to that. We’ll go back and

Yerba Buena SX80: look at the plans and look at all of your comments, Mike, do you have anything? No, just to reiterate. We’ll we’ll take all your comments into consideration and see how and what modifications we can make

Yerba Buena SX80: too much. I think it’s just, you know, appreciate all the observations, and we’ll have to circle back with our client and see

Yerba Buena SX80: how we can respond.

Yerba Buena SX80: Thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, thank you very much. Good.

Yerba Buena SX80: Now, we normally at this stage

Yerba Buena SX80: decide whether we need to see the project again. And I think in this case we would definitely need to see the project again.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, so I think with that, we can

Yerba Buena SX80: move to adjournment of the meeting.

Yerba Buena SX80: so this concludes our project review, and I want to entertain a motion and a seconder to adjourn our meeting could someone.

Yerba Buena SX80: I’ll second that Gary will second it all those in favor. Okay, so the meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Everyone. Thank you to the proponents for the hard work

Yerba Buena SX80: and scheme, and thank you to the team, and I just want to acknowledge, well done. You’re the 1st time you’ve presented here to to the board. So so thank you.

Yerba Buena SX80: And look just actually, just before we adjourn

Yerba Buena SX80: a completely different topic. But I had the opportunity to

Yerba Buena SX80: walk the 2 new Parks Admission Bay earlier this last week, and

Yerba Buena SX80: I think it would be good for us to as a group. Take a look at those 2 parks. There’s

Yerba Buena SX80: the Mission Rock Park has some very interesting, I think, instructive lessons that we could take from that. So and the other park. They’re both very interesting to look at. So you know, let’s see if we could set something up in the New Year sometime and go for a walk.

Yerba Buena SX80: Okay, thanks very much.

Yerba Buena SX80: Good night.