Times: Hercules developer spent nearly $200,000 on waterfront initiative
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 12 February 2009 — 2 comments below »
If someone would have asked me how much I had thought that AndersonPacific spent on the initiative, I’d have guessed $175k. The cumulative costs of drafting the initiative and printing materials, the retention of lawyers and political consultants, and paying “volunteers” to gather signatures is no small thing…
Hercules developer spent nearly $200,000 on waterfront initiative
By Tom LochnerHercules Bayfront LLC spent more than $196,000 last year on a waterfront initiative, according to a campaign finance statement on file with the Contra Costa County Election Department.
The Hercules City Council eventually adopted the initiative by ordinance, preempting a popular vote on the plan that would have been on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The Waterfront Now Initiative calls for more than 1,200 houses, offices, stores and an intermodal transit center for trains, ferries and buses.
Of the total $198,113.59 reported, Hercules Bayfront LLC contributed all but $2,000; that amount came from the East Bay Business Coalition.
The main principal in Hercules Bayfront LLC is developer AndersonPacific LLC of Los Angeles.
The campaign finance statement does not provide any details on how the money was spent.
And we love them for every penny they’ve spent!
One day those ambitions will be reality…
As one of the three official sponsors of this initiative, I worked very hard to get signatures, visiting scores of businesses and homes and manning a booth at the Cultural Festival. I received no compensation and didn’t want any, and so was a volunteer without the quotation marks (as were many other people). I greatly appreciate this investment by the developer in our community, I regret that the City Council had taken the actions that delayed its implementation by more than a year and resulted in the roundly detested “Szabo Plan” alternative (which necessitated this Initiative to return the plan to that which the people have said they’d wanted for the past decade), and I can hardly wait to see the cement trucks coming down Sycamore to get started.