The Waterfront Now initiative is on tap at tomorrow evening’s City Council meeting…

Plan aims to kick Hercules waterfront development into high gear

To jump-start long-awaited development of the waterfront, the Hercules City Council tonight will consider putting an initiative on the November ballot to amend the General Plan and Zoning ordinance and approve a development agreement for more than 1,200 homes with a boulevard of shops and restaurants and a multimodal transit center.

Or, the council could adopt the substance of the initiative by ordinance, making an election unnecessary.

That is the recommendation of a city staff report, which cites strong community support for the initiative. Within three weeks of a notice to circulate a petition, supporters delivered 3,666 signatures to the city clerk, who forwarded them to the County Elections Office, which sampled 500 of the signatures at random and found more than four-fifths of them valid.

The extrapolated total of valid signatures, 2,850, represents 25.3 percent of Hercules’ 11,266 registered voters; 10 percent were needed to qualify the measure for the next municipal election, in November, or 15 percent for a special election.

The Waterfront Now Initiative is sponsored by AndersonPacific LLC, a component of Hercules Bayfront LLC, which has a tentative development agreement with the redevelopment agency that could be ratified tonight. It provides for a pedestrian-, bicycle- and transit-friendly bayfront development with upscale restaurants, an Amtrak Capitol Corridor station and a ferry terminal connecting Hercules with San Francisco. There also would be a pickup and drop-off area for buses. Hercules Point would be open space.

The proposed initiative covers 42 acres of waterfront commercial land and 10.9 acres of open space. Its boundary encircles several historic buildings, including the Civic Arts building where a proposal for a restaurant has upset neighbors of the adjacent Hercules Historic Homes who say smells, noise, traffic and other impacts would clash with the serenity of their neighborhood.

Two weeks ago, the Hercules Planning Commission turned down a request for a conditional-use permit; the applicant, Kay Sala of Sala Thai Restaurant, is appealing the decision to the City Council, but a hearing is unlikely before September.

If the Central Hercules Plan becomes applicable to the parcel as the initiative provides, the range of permissible uses will increase, said Hercules City Attorney Mick Cabral.

“However, the Planning Commission and City Council will still retain discretion to determine whether a proposed use is a proper fit on any given parcel,” Cabral said. “I do not believe Sala Thai will stand a better chance under the Central Hercules Plan zoning than it does under current zoning.”

More than a year ago, the redevelopment agency offered Sala Thai a locale at Railroad and Sycamore avenues, but Sala found the asking rent of $3.75 a square foot a month too high. Another establishment, the Powder Keg, is under construction at that corner.