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Politics & Government

Task Force on Golden Gate Fields to Meet Sundays

A task force formed to discuss the future of Golden Gate Fields met at the Community Center on Sunday night for the first time. Monday night, visit the racetrack for its unveiling of the latest set of "second campus" plans proposed to Berkeley Lab.

More than 20 people appointed recently by city and school district officials to consider the future of met for the first time Sunday night. 

The group, the Golden Gate Fields Task Force, is charged with collecting information about "potential development by The Stronach Group at the Albany Waterfront," according to its mission statement. 

The task force's creation was prompted by plans by racetrack developers to try to become the site of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's proposed second campus. ( for a chance to see the newest set of site plans, which were submitted to the lab in the past few weeks.)

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About a dozen members of the public attended Sunday night's meeting.

The task force is not a decision-making body; its purpose, rather, is to collect, review and share "adequate, factual information and data" about the site, according to its mission statement.

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A complete list of task force members will be posted Monday, as soon as it is provided to Albany Patch by city officials. 

All task force materials will be posted on Albany Patch.

Materials also will be available online at http://www.voicestovision.com, said Fern Tiger, task force moderator. Tiger has helped organize two rounds of Voices to Vision talks; this task force marks her third foray into community engagement efforts in Albany. 

Members of the public can sign up for email updates from the city about the task force by visiting this page, and checking the box next to "Golden Gate Fields Task Force."

Sunday night, task force members described their hopes for the group, and also agreed on topics of conversation in the coming weeks. 

Members agreed that materials would need to be available to the task force and to the public in advance to allow for informed discussions.

Topics up for consideration include the following:

  • Site plan and physical characteristics
  • Economic impacts
  • Public open space
  • Environmental issues
  • Ownership
  • Traffic
  • CEQA, development agreement and Measure C

Task Force members brainstormed about these and other topics to create a roadmap for future discussion. 

One member said the group should meet weekly, but others said the time line would need to be set based on when materials are made available by the city, the developers and Berkeley Lab. 

The group agreed that Sunday nights would be an appropriate time for meetings, but did not set a schedule.

Tiger created a list of protocols, which was distributed to task force members. Among them, were the following points:

  • Task Force meetings are open to the public; members of the public may comment at the end of each meeting for up to two minutes each, unless decisions are being made by the committee. If decisions are being made, members of the public will be able to comment prior to any vote.
  • Task Force meetings will be videotaped and posted by the city on its website.
  • Requests for particular discussion topics or information can be submitted at least four days in advance by email to fern@ferntiger.com, liz@ferntiger.com, or info@ferntiger.com, or by phone to 510-208-7700
  • Every effort will be made to distribute information in advance and summaries of the meetings will be given to task force members and posted on www.voicestovision.com.

Task force members asked for guidance on how Brown Act restrictions would affect their communications online, both with the public and with each other; City Manager Beth Pollard said she would prepare this information to bring to the task force at a later date.

Read more about the process for selecting the proposed second campus of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Albany Patch here.

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See the city's project website at http://www.voicestovision.com. The developers also have a website: http://lbnlatggf.com.

Everybody makes mistakes ... ! If there's something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at emilier@patch.com.

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