Tom Lochner reported on what became “a very real possibility” of a casino in Franklin Canyon — until the canyon was protected by Measure M later that year.

CASINO MAY BE IN THE CARDS FOR HERCULES – DEVELOPER PETER KIESECKER CALLS THE IDEA “A VERY REAL POSSIBILITY”
Monday, January 5, 2004
By Tom Lochner

Although city officials and a casino promoter have downplayed rumors of an American Indian casino in Franklin Canyon, a developer says he was approached about it more than four months ago and that the idea is very much alive.

Peter Kiesecker, president of GreenPark Holdings LLC of Seal Beach, says real estate broker John Troughton first approached him with the idea in late August.

GreenPark has an application before the city to build more than 500 homes, a hotel, offices and stores in Franklin Canyon.

Troughton, whose firm, Cushman & Wakefield, has an exclusive brokerage agreement with the city’s Redevelopment Agency, is shopping around Contra Costa County for a casino venue for the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians; an attempt to find one in Antioch failed.

In early September, Troughton e-mailed Kiesecker asking for a meeting at a Crockett restaurant in hopes of hammering out a deal for a casino in Franklin Canyon.

Kiesecker says he didn’t go. But later that month, Troughton again invited Kiesecker, this time to meet with him and some casino representatives.

“We may be moving toward another site,” Troughton told Kiesecker in an e-mail, “but the tribe and the investors are captivated with the opportunity in Franklin Canyon.”

Again, Kiesecker said, he did not go.

“I’d rather create a residential community,” Kiesecker said. But if the city will not approve it, then a casino could be an alternative, he said.

Supporters of GreenPark’s residential proposal say it would create jobs, generate developer fees for the city and pump up property values elsewhere in Hercules . Critics say it would harm wildlife and streams, scar the landscape and bring traffic and pollution.

Last week, Kiesecker said he was bothered by reports that some residents believe he is putting out false rumors of a casino to scare them into rallying behind his residential development proposal.

“It is not a red herring,” Kiesecker said. “It is not a scare tactic. It is a very real possibility.”

A telephone survey in early December, which no one has admitted sponsoring, asked residents how they felt about several hypothetical scenarios for Franklin Canyon, including a casino.

The survey also asked homeowners’ views about the possibility of paying an annual assessment of $150 for 30 years to buy the property as open space. The survey also asked their views about the possibility of a lawsuit by GreenPark against the city on the grounds that it isn’t processing the application with due diligence.

“I’m not saying I’m not doing the polling,” Kiesecker said. “Those are certainly the questions I would ask.”

Kiesecker said he thinks he is unfairly taking a public relations beating over the casino idea while others remain aloof.

“(Troughton) says he doesn’t know about a gambling casino , yet he was trying to woo us three months ago,” Kiesecker said.

In November, Troughton said he was not negotiating for a casino in Hercules but that “if anybody wants to pick up the phone, I’m listening.”

“You never know,” he said. “(Hercules is) a nice place, obviously. I live there.”

Troughton did not return calls last week.

City Manager Mike Sakamoto and community development director Steve Lawton said in November there was no plan to build a casino in Hercules.

Two weeks ago, Troughton said he was “shocked” when he heard about the telephone survey and suggested it might have been sponsored by “an anti-casino group trying to poison the waters.”

“We don’t have anything to do with Hercules,” Troughton said. Asked specifically whether he and his group had any designs on the GreenPark property, Troughton answered, “What I thought is (GreenPark has) a development process ongoing.”

Troughton said he is close to a deal for a casino in one or two other undisclosed locations in the region.

Kiesecker said he believes he has three choices: “development, sale or litigation.” He would rather not sell to a casino, he added.

Kiesecker said he believes the city is unnecessarily drawing out the completion of an environmental impact report and running up the cost.

Two years after he filed his application to build homes, the report is unfinished and the tab stands at $878,000. A draft report generated 600 pages of comments by about two dozen agencies and more than 50 individuals.

Based on similar projects GreenPark has completed elsewhere in California, the environmental studies should cost $150,000 to $300,000, Kiesecker said

Kiesecker has balked at paying more and has demanded an audit. By failing to complete the environmental report in a timely manner, the city is lowering perceptions of the property’s value and promoting the notion that GreenPark will be forced to bail out, he said.

“We are getting calls from other developers that want to step into our place, if they can get (the property) at a discount,” Kiesecker said.

But Kiesecker says he is not about to throw in the towel.

Lawton said there is no basis for Kiesecker’s complaints and that the city-commissioned preparation of environmental documents has been “totally normal” and in accordance with state law.

“Staff has diligently followed the instructions of the applicant,” Lawton said. “We have followed the instructions of the Planning Commission — and the City Council.

“We are very confident we have done what we were supposed to do. We have carried out in a faithful manner all the work.”

Zakhary Mallett is the BART director for District 7 that covers all of Hercules. He has a website — zakharymallettbart.com — which he believes is unique, as it “establishes [himself] as the first BART Director to ever maintain their own website[.]”

Mallett also manages a wBART Facebook page that ostensibly advocates for his preferred alignment (along I-80) for a BART extension. However Mallett does not openly acknowledge his role in managing the page. In fact, the page is loosely described in the ‘About’ section with no declared owner, except that it “serves as a community page for those interested in staying up-to-date about the milestones accomplished as they relate to wBART.“

Tom Lochner reported on a purportedly proposed casino for Franklin Canyon prior to Measure M — which protected the canyon through a General Plan amendment and passed with 63 percent of the vote in November 2004.

SIDES CLASH OVER HERCULES BUILDING PROPOSAL
Sunday, December 28, 2003
by Tom Lochner

The tug of war over undeveloped Franklin Canyon is flaring again, with a developer slamming the city’s handling of an environmental report and residents denouncing a telephone survey that raised the specter of an American Indian casino.

The survey, which no one has acknowledged commissioning, asked residents in early December how they would feel about a casino as an alternative if the city rejects a plan for more than 500 houses in Franklin Canyon. A city official said no one has proposed building a casino in Franklin Canyon. City residents said asking the question on the survey was a scare tactic.

Peter Kiesecker, president of GreenPark Holdings LLC of Seal Beach, complained to the Planning Commission last week that the environmental impact report commissioned by the city has cost his company $878,000 to date and could end up costing more than $1 million.

GreenPark has proposed building 577 homes, a hotel, offices and stores on the grassy and wooded hills of Franklin Canyon, at the easternmost tip of the city. An alternate plan calls for 503 homes.

Supporters of the proposal say it will swell city coffers with developer fees, increase property values elsewhere in town and provide a backroad connection to Highway 4, among other benefits.

Opponents say the project will destroy the habitat of several rare plant and animal species, pollute the watersheds of two creeks, ruin views, trigger landslides and flood local streets with traffic.

Kiesecker bemoaned the lack of progress toward approval of GreenPark’s application, which it filed two years ago in hopes of getting permits attached to the property so it could be resold to another developer. Kiesecker is demanding an audit before he pays any more money for the report, which is being prepared by Oakland-based Impact Sciences.

Kiesecker said that under the California Environmental Quality Act, the city must complete the environmental impact report in a year. But senior planner Elizabeth Dunn said Kiesecker seems to be referring to a provision not in the CEQA but in the Permit Streamlining Act. That provision does not apply, Dunn said, because GreenPark is seeking a general plan amendment and the rezoning of its 456-acre property.

City Manager Mike Sakamoto said Kiesecker can have his audit if he pays for it. City officials said Kiesecker’s refusal to make further payments on the report puts the whole process on hold.

The draft of the environmental impact report drew more than 600 pages of comments by about two dozen agencies and more than 50 individuals. Until recently, city officials had estimated that the response to the comments and a supplement to the initial draft would be completed by the end of the year.

The week before the Dec. 15 Planning Commission meeting, when Kiesecker made his complaints, many Hercules residents received calls from Competitive Edge Research of San Diego asking their opinions about various city officials; about the Sierra Club and Friends of Franklin Canyon, both of which oppose the development proposal; about the prospect of an Indian casino in Franklin Canyon; about a possible lawsuit by the developer against the city; and about a $150 tax that could be assessed annually if the city buys the GreenPark property and reserves it as open space.

Many residents said they think the casino question is a red herring designed to cow them into embracing a GreenPark-type development in Franklin Canyon as the lesser of two evils.

“I think they’re (GreenPark) trying to instill fear in people’s minds, that this is what you could end up with if you don’t support our plan,” said resident Dan Romero, who received a survey call. “I think they’re desperate.”

Kiesecker would not confirm or deny whether his firm commissioned the survey and said he could not comment on a possible lawsuit or casino. John Troughton, a real estate broker who is shopping for a venue for a casino in Contra Costa County, said he knew nothing about the survey. Troughton, who has tried unsuccessfully to get a casino approved in Antioch and is still trying to get one approved in Richmond, said he has no casino-related deals pending in Hercules.

City Manager Sakamoto said he first heard about the survey when a resident called to tell him about it. He said there is no proposal, formal or informal, in play for a casino in the city. John Niestedt, owner of Competitive Edge Research, declined to identify who commissioned the survey as a matter of company policy.

The survey questions were virtually identical to ones asked at a focus group in late November, said resident Karen Glover.

If you are interested in a free preview of the Hercules history book in the Images of America series (by Arcadia), Google has a copy:

I’m proud to be listed in the acknowledgments.

The best way to buy the book is directly through the Hercules Historical Society. Email society@herculeshistory.org with questions.

The city council met in closed session at their last meeting to discuss negotiating with a party to be determined (Brown Act be damned), and provided direction to staff to move forward with negotiations.

A source familiar with the negotiations now says the TBD party is in fact a tribal gaming operation that has proposed to construct a casino and hotel between four and six stories for the site. The casino would also function as a medical marijuana dispensary.

When pressed for comment on the obvious conflict with current zoning, councilwoman Sherry McCoy stated that the terms of the PSA do not need to be consistent with zoning. “If the deal fails during CEQA, it fails,” she said, adding that she is not in favor of the deal — despite voting for negotiations in closed session.

McCoy does not feel the public need be alarmed by the drastic change in proposed land use. “It’s better just to not think about these things, because if you do, they may happen,” she said.

McCoy did not elaborate on whether she feels the city — and herself specifically — is negotiating in good faith knowing the deal would fail unless the planning process is completed (zoning, CEQA, hearings, etc.), except to say she does not comment on her spirituality and that she “was a Vegan once or twice but did not inhale.”

Meanwhile, councilwoman Myrna de Vera expressed outrage on the proposed deal: “I know, ain’t it crazy? Someone has to stop us. Maybe you will.” De Vera voted in favor of the proposed terms in closed session.

The only nay vote in closed session apparently came from councilman Dan Romero, who has said he despises gambling as a sin, “unless it is for a good cause — like the senior center.”

The source also states the city plans to schedule a public meeting as early as July to discuss the project and determine the appropriate locations and lighting for coat check stations throughout the facility.

“You can never do enough planning,” the source said.

Tom Lochner reports:

The broker for the city-owned Civic Arts building, site of the defunct Sala Restaurant, says she is surprised at the high level of interest from prospective tenants. Deborah Perry of Colliers International, who has been marketing the 2,100-square-foot premises overlooking San Pablo Bay for about a month, said she has two letters of interest from among a collection of interested parties that includes startups as well as established restaurateurs. [...]

The Civic Arts building, which the former Hercules Redevelopment Agency spent more than $1.6 million to renovate so it could become a restaurant, is at 1991 Railroad Ave. next to the Historic Homes neighborhood.

Perry advertised it at $1.50 a square foot per month; Sala Restaurant’s monthly rent had been $1.65 a square foot, but the restaurant closed owing the city about $112,000 in unpaid rent, utility bills and loan payments, by city estimates.

Accurate reporting, as usual.

I guess an Apple Store is out of the running. Goddamn recall council.

Alyssa Morrissey reports on last week’s meeting:

“We have been getting five to ten calls every week,” Colliers International Agent Deborah Perry said about the property. “That’s a lot. That has been a very positive thing.” [...]

Perry said the majority of the interest has been a 50-50 split between established restaurateurs and start ups, with the majority looking to establish an place serving Asian cuisine. [...]

The property overlooks Hercules’ picturesque waterfront, looking out at the hills of Marin County across the San Pablo Bay. The 2,068 sq. ft. building also includes a full bar with seating, plus an additional 500 to 600 sq. ft. in patio seating. With its former lessees pouring hundreds of thousands into a complete makeover, the building also provides a turnkey opportunity for those interested.

Point of correction: the city poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the building, not the lessees. Sala didn’t pay its rent (or workers allegedly).