Many decisions were made regarding the proposed use of the restored historic Civic Arts Building without public input, and that was the basis for the Historic Homes residents that spoke at last week’s City Council meeting …

And here are the prepared remarks…

Presented by Louise Franklin and Don Goewey at City Council Meeting 9/23/08

At the Sept 9 city council meeting, the city sent the matter of the appeal of Kay Sala to open a restaurant and bar in the historic civic arts bldg back to planning commission. Mr. Oliva, instructed the planning commission to review the use permit a second time, with the change in zoning – therefore removing any discussion of how and why the zoning was changed in the first place.

The council was then directed to remove from record any further comments regarding this matter effectively silencing the concerns of residents and citizens of Hercules.

I am here tonight speaking for many concerned residents with 3-points:

1) PETITION

We presented a petition on March 25 signed by residents who oppose using the Civic Arts Building as a restaurant/bar, and who want the city to find a day use for this building. Tonight, I am presenting another petition signed by more residents throughout the area – including Hercules by the Bay, Chelsea by the Bay, and Coventry, so this is more than a concern of just a few isolated residents. We already have more than 70 signatures and, with the original petition presented in March, we now have moe than 100 signatures. get more. Everyone I personally spoke to was surprised and upset about the change in use.

2) ZONING

The surprise zoning change is extremely concerning: If planning manager Dennis Tagashira or his staff were not aware of the change, and the council members were not aware, why would the public have responsibility to be aware? Given the record of events and confusion, the change in zoning of the historic arts building needs to be rolled back to its original status as public/quasi park and reconsidered, with full public process.

Here is what we have learned to date:

On July 22, Just two weeks after the July 6 planning commission hearing where commissioners unanimously rejected Kay Sala’s use permit, the Waterfront Master Plan Initiative was adopted. Later, residents were shocked to learn tht the civic arts building and other historic structures were somehow added into the fine print. This rezoning removed the intended public use of this site – basically taking a publicly owned property over which city has control and rezoning it for commercial or private use. The permit process for serving alcohol was now as easy as a business license. Additionally, any opportunity for public discretion and wise planning was now, “a moot point” as stated by staff member Rochelle Samuels, when we asked the Planning Department about what would happen.

When we asked how this happened: City Attorney Mick Cabral stated: “How the rezoning of the civic arts and neighboring historic structures came about is unclear – it was drafted and sponsored by the developer.”

Then we heard from Ethan Sischo of AndersonPacific LL “when we were updating the Master Plan for the initiative, we were asked to include those buildings – the request came from the city.”

Then, as reported by Mr. Lochner in the Contra Costa Times: “The initiative also included a change in the boundary of the Waterfront District that apparently escaped the attention of the public as well as some city officials. Planning Manager Dennis Tagashira said ” he did not even get a copy of the initiative until after the July 22 council vote.”

And finally, from Tom Koch, a political consultant and adviser to Anderson Pacific “the decision what to include and not to include was entirely internal” and was made by (AndersonPacific President) Jim Anderson in consultation with his team of planners, a design firm and a law firm. Cox stated they added the rezoning to “clean up strange zoning” – I do not think public use is strange zoning!

Lastly, Mr. Lochner reported that he tried to reach Anderson several times regarding the comments from Tom Koch above and his calls were never returned.

There is obviously either a breakdown in communication or lack of transparency resulting in a breach in due process concerning the rezoning of public, city-owned property to private use. The residents and taxpayers of Hercules deserve to know what happened, who changed it, why information on the zoning change was withheld from residents and we deserve to have this change in zoning removed from the Waterfront Initiative. Although the city states “it did everything legally to notify people” this hardly holds up given your own planning staff and commissioners were not even aware of this change and did not mention it at all at the Planning Commission meeting on July 6, when this issue was discussed at length.

3) Our 3rd major concern is with the lease agreement.

LEASE and BUILDING COSTS

Here is what we know:

1) The remodel of the Civic Arts building has cost more than $1.2 million to date.

We know that discussions were in progress certainly in 2007, and Ms. Sala was offered the Power Keg location at $3.25 a sq ft, and she turned it down

A lease was signed with Ms.Sala at least by Feb 6, 2008, although residents found this out by surprise, but already a p.r. campaign was underway, there were announcements printed and being distributed regarding the new restaurant that were handed out by the city.

When we asked Mayor Joanne Ward and Planning Manager Nelson Dennis Tagashira why they were leasing this site to a restaurant – jeopardizing the property values of surrounding homes and violating the central plan of preserving and highlighting the historic district of Hercules, we were told by them that “no one else was interested in this site” at all.

City officials have stated that real estate broker Michael Penner was hired and that he contacted many prospective clients for the Civic Arts building –but that Sala Thai was the only one that showed interest.

However, we have learned that the building was never advertised on BMLS, commercial multiple listings, we do not have any documentation that the site was advertised openly and thoroughly, and we would like to have documentation as to where it was advertised and why the city sought a restaurant for this historical site that was public quasi/park and sitting just above historic homes.

RENT: It is documented that the cost quoted to Kay Sala for the proposed lease of the Civic Arts Building is $1.65 a square foot a month, – wow!!! per City Manager Nelson Oliva, July 2008. This sure seems like a sweetheart deal since Coldwell Banker Real Estate office at the opposite end of the Powder Keg Restaurant is paying double, or $2.50 sq ft And, in Pinole area, at the Trader Joes shopping center, they are asking for minimum $3.50-$3.95 sq ft, and this is an area with no view3

We also know that Ms. Sala has worked with the architects throughout the year, requesting modifications, and that architectural and building modifications have already been conducted at Ms.Sala’s and the city’s request, even before any change in zoning was in effect, – and many more are slated -to our knowledge none of these modifications have gone through any sort of formal and required review, such as historic guidelines, environmental impact, including the sound wall, blower, massive lighting changes, and more.

One can’t help but compare this situation to the recent recall issue with the Pear Street Restaurant in Pinole, when it was discovered that the restaurant was only paying $1.75 sq ft and the operation was being subsidized by city. In that situation, the Tenant was given everything they wanted, which seems to be the case here.