In a six-hour meeting filled with cheers and jeers, the Albany City Council approved needed to move forward a University of California plan for development of a grocery store and senior housing facility at University Village.
Project plans have been underway for five years, and include a Whole Foods store up to 55,000 square feet just north of Monroe Street, as well as a 175-unit senior housing complex just south of Monroe.
The council approved in the Village, which the university said were necessary for completion of the project, as well as changes to municipal open space and parking requirements, the project's and a development agreement. (.)
Officials estimated that 150-200 people attended the meeting; some of them had to watch a monitor from outside the room because the hall where the meeting was held was filled to capacity. (There were 120 seats set up in the room for meeting attendees, and many people also stood and lined the walls of the room throughout the night.)
said after the meeting that it was the latest-running one she could recall during her 11 years working for the city.
Approximately 40 activists and supporters for urban farming, many of whom said they want an agro-ecology center created on the Gill Tract agricultural research fields, as well as the preservation of agricultural land, various aspects of the project.
Though many said they lived in Berkeley or the greater East Bay, quite a few of the speakers against the project, including at least two Albany business owners, said they lived in Albany or had close ties to it.
About 16 people spoke in favor of the development, including many members of Albany Little League, which has several playing fields in the Village. The project development agreement, which was approved Monday night, assures the league that its current fields will remain in place for at least 10 years, and that the university will pay to move them if the need arises.
Unlike many Albany meetings, which are marked for the most part by moderate public comments and a largely orderly tone, Monday night's meeting was punctuated by frequent outbursts despite repeated attempts by the mayor to reign in public emotion.
"We extraordinaly bent our usual public speaking policies," he said, in allowing audience members to "cede time" to fellow commenters, which is not a common practice for Albany. "We allowed you to get away with all kinds of clapping and booing, which is not allowed."
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Many of the speakers against the project were affiliated with Occupy the Farm, a group that took over the university's Gill Tract in April to plant an urban farm and advocate for a permanent center on the UC research fields for community farming efforts.
Critics of the university's plan said the project's environmental review document failed to address issues such as pollution and traffic impacts adequately. Numerous speakers said, as a result, council approval of the document could leave the city open to litigation.
David Clore of LSA Associates, the firm that prepared the environmental impact report, told the council that "what we heard simply, in many cases, was not accurate," and assured council members that the 2,500-page document fairly described all the impacts.
Many speakers talked about their inherent distrust for the university, and railed against what they described as an increasing privatization and corporatization of the institution.
Supporters of the project said it would ; revitalize a depressed portion of San Pablo Avenue; bring much-needed revenue and jobs to the city; create nearby housing for seniors; and improve access to creeks and cycling paths.
Just after 1 a.m., as the council worked its way through the seven separate approvals on the agenda, attempted to convince the other four council members to approve an easement to protect the Gill Tract research fields as open space.
His motion received a yes-vote from , and no-votes from and . abstained from the vote, which resulted in its failure.
Atkinson was the lone no-vote in approving the project's Environmental Impact report, saying she wanted to acknowledge community concerns voiced about the document.
Lieber was the sole no-vote on the development agreement between the university and the city, as well as the density bonus requested by the university to lower parking requirements.
Overall, however, he said he supported the development.
"This is good for Albany. It does create a community space that fronts San Pablo. It does create an income that this city sorely needs," he said. "We have scraped and cut and found really great ways to make up our budgets. But we need this. That's the way I feel."
Council members expressed interest in preserving open space on the Gill Tract fields and working with the university to investigate the possibility of creating an agro-ecology center there.
Several of the items approved Monday will return to the council for a "second reading" on July 16, but may not be open for additional public comment unless the council decides to re-open the public hearing.
The city also will revise one of the to provide that the project will , said Albany's Community Development director, Jeff Bond.
Do you agree with the council decision? Take our poll below. See live tweets from the meeting in the PDF attached to this story.
Click the "Keep me posted" button below for an update when we publish future stories on the Whole Foods project. Learn about the proposed .
If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email at albany@patch.com.
There's a certain "class 1 soil festishism" that keeps coming up. I'm actually kind of fond of the idea that hundreds of thousands of tons of former highway debris, dirt and rock was moved to create new (and clearly habitable, whether or not that's good policy) space; the Bulb isn't, so far as I know, radioactive, or laced with PCBs, though there's rusty old rebar that in a few hundred years will be nothing but rust. The farmed portion of the Gill Tract, on the other hand, actually owes its existence to many decades of the hand of Man, i.e., why it isn't a thicket of live oaks, blackberries and salsify is that it's been ploughed, composted, dug and supplemented by humans, though it's also a veneer: more than a few feet down, it's unchanged from what it was hundreds of years ago, but ditto most land in the area (goodness knows a few feet below my house there's been water flowing down from the hills for centuries, and that's unlikely to change).
Outed you? Please. Everyone connected with the school knows what you do for a living. If you wanted it kept secret, you should have informed your husband to keep his lips zipped. Odd that your professional real estate view doesn't take into account the nature of the vast open spaces on the other side of Tilden when even a common, everyday, Albany-ian lay person such as myself can figure this one out. And please, do not presume to tell me what I may or may not take for granted. You have absolutely NO idea.
As has been clear between the lines here, this is first and foremost a 'pitch' to Albany to obtain building permits. Part of it is retail sales (which Albany needs BADLY), which includes the 'smoke and mirrors' of a 'Whole Foods' store. Some of the project is way-station/ hospital recovery hospice for the infirm, with the 'smoke an mirrors' of calling it a 'senior housing' center. (All please raise their hands if you can bicycle, and can afford and desire to pay $2500.-/ month for their cheapest shared room). Dover: regarding your statement: "Also, you might wish to familiarize yourself with The Village in general. It is student housing, not low-income housing. " Actually, the mean income at the village is below the poverty level, just as it is at Stanford graduate housing, and U.C. Santa Cruz Graduate housing. 'Donated food for families' trucks and Food Stamps are standard stuff a ALL these places. Sorry, but you should familiarize yourself with Grad student incomes.'
Also, while I can understand you get upset and are an emotional being (as we all are), but condescending comments "you might wish to familiarize yourself" and adversarial exchanges "you should have informed your husband to keep his lips zipped" are unnecessary. imho
LOL! Too funny. Read it again, please. My point was that their patronage is neither obligatory nor based on proximity. You seem to have it a bit backwards. And, as you may have noticed, The Village is not exactly located next to the UC campus, so anyone who has trouble making it to the store is probably not going to want to live so far away from the very school that enables them to rent a home in The Village in the first place. If Margaret needs any help responding to my comments, I am sure she will let you know. ;-}
Belmont is not a nursing home. They do not have medical staff for serious situations, but they do have a nurse 24/7. I don't know if or how nurse services are charged. Albany residents will have priority for 17.5 units. They will need to have the finances to qualify. Belmont does help folks get through the process of selling their home or getting a reverse mortgage. www.belmontvillage.com is their site. For exact prices, contact them. The place will be lovely. I wonder if 17 Albany residents will be able to afford it. It would be nice to see some sort of subsidy for Albany seniors included in the development agreement. UC will be earning millions a year in rent if they don't just sell the entire chunk of land. 2. The land is on a open field. It's behind the fence on San Pablo with all the graffitti that UC doesn't clean, also known as the gateway to Albany. 3. Re: City seeking input. I think they fulfilled the minimum requirements for notice. Lots of folks still don't realize the enormity of the project. When informed of details, many change opinion about the project. I was surprised that a poster wasn't placed on the actual site, but it evidently is not required.
To use a cliche, real estate really is all about location location location. Not sure I get your point about the back of the hill. If it were developable, developers would view it as valuable infill property in a highly supply constrained market (meaning the bay area) and a desirable submarket with strong demand characteristics (on various demographic measures, including average income). The western side, which is closer to more jobs and amenities, would be higher value, as would the lower/outer parts. Likewise the reality of grocery stores and most other similar 'convenience' retail is that customer proximity and sales are very highly correlated. Retailers draw rings of various distances and shapes to define their trade areas and expect and get much greater sales in the inner rings. I'm not making a value judgement, I'm just describing how it tends to happen. The average customer just doesn't like to drive that far for milk, and time is money so folks do pay up for a closer gallon. Lovely to hear you've been chatting with my hubby, never dreamed I'd come up in conversation. No secrets here, just a lightness of phrase as I note that you are the one who chose to put my occupation in the Patch.
See how logic works? Try it sometime. It's fun!
Even worse, they don't come back to the Patch very readily. This I know from talking to an array of people and reading other threads (not yours necessarily) and from personal experience. It would be great if we could all support Emilie and reinforce all the love people have been sending her in this thread by keeping the discussion on topic and interesting to a broad array of folks. You do have thoughtful things to say on the issues. It would be great to hear your substantive points.
Seems like power struggles, and progress isn't made. I do appreciate that some Albany citizens have been actively following the development for years. Thanks for your community service.
Not to mention that they, and you, can simply ignore my posts. Here's how. My name appears at the top of each one. When you see it, avert your eyes and simply read ahead. I won't be offended, I promise. P.S. Need I mention that I don't take other people's guilt trips? ;-)
But Margaret has a point. You know, if you continue to be mean to the occasional goofy ignorant WTFer (err I mean OTFer) that shows up on this blog, they might be driven away quickly by your spite. The horror the horror....
I have been a Regional Park user all of my life, spending countless hours at the pony rides, merry – go – round, and little train as a child. Now I often take my daughter to the park and often do reflect on how fortunate we are that earlier residents had the foresight to preserve this land. From the earliest days people worked within the system to establish the Regional Park District and to fund land acquisition, its management, and maintenance. East Bay residents showed their strong support of these efforts by approving various tax measures, most recently Measure WW. Parks are open and accessible to all and serve a variety of purposes. This model has resulted in one of the premier regional park district in the nation.
Go, Dover!
Agreed. But how do you know Dover is a her? Funny, I think of her as a her, but she could be I guy, I guess. Actually, I have no idea.
I have to wonder how many of the people that continue to say how overpriced Whole Foods is have actually spent much time in one. Do the have expensive items things? Absolutely. But, they also have a house brand "365" which is priced in comparison with Safeway and Lucky.
I agree for the most part, and it never occurred to me not to use my real name when I signed up. But I know of some serious commentators who do use pseudonyms. They might, for example, happen to have the last name of a local public official, and they don't want to spend time fending off the the misconceptions that would create. I think the reality is that we are not going to change this, so I've accepted that we have a two-tiered system. Serious people use their real names. Seats in the virtual peanut gallery are reserved for those who use pseudonyms.
If Ulan and Margaret viewed their home as sacrosanct, they would not hold publicly announced OTF meetings in their home nor invite complete strangers to their home. Nor would they have used their family situation to argue against the installation of padding in the Tot Lot that has enabled disabled children to also use the facility. (I still have the printed materials.) It's rather presumptuous of you to assume that I express myself any differently here than I do elsewhere. Not the case at all. My opinions do not change based on location or format. Do yours? If you are unable to derive any benefit from reading my posts simply because you have not met me yet, I invite you to pass them by. I won't hold it against you. I am not here to seek your respect and you are not obliged to value my ideas. If being a better person is dependent on the actions of others, well, let's just say you have some issues that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. The OTFers who wear masks during their "protests" hide their faces because they are breaking the law. I am not. Please refrain from lumping me into the law breaking category. Thank you!
Holding a public meeting at our house means the public is invited at that time for that purpose. That is all it means. Do you use the Tot Lot at Dartmouth? While they city has technically complied with ADA they have yet to fix the actual problem that prevents handicap access; this oversight happened in part because they never allowed park users to have a voice. Furthermore, park usage is visibly way down since the renovation. I'm disappointed in both the process and the outcome, and I stated both in public letters posted on the city website. No need for you to physically stockpile the evidence. Francesco, thank you for your very well stated commentary. On this, we agree completely. Over and out.