There was a public workshop following last night’s Planning Commission meeting on the subject of the merged redevelopment area, which will now include the sites of Hilltown and Sycamore Crossing. The draft EIR is now public, and comments are due by March 12, 2009. The presentation provided by the project manager is embedded below…

There were a lot of items discussed last night that were of interest, but here are a few highlights…

• Sycamore Crossing is owned by the Redevelopment Agency, and Hilltown is privately-owned.
• Hilltown will now be 100% residential, with the commercial component being moved elsewhere (although the commercial component was small).
• The proposed extensions of 10 years for the Dynamite Redevelopment Area and 12 years for eminent domain are statutory limits.
• The City of Hercules collects less than five cents for every dollar in property taxes (compared to an average of twenty cents for similar-sized cities). This is because the city was flush with cash from the old refinery and purposely kept the property tax low, but then the refinery left town. As a result, the need for commercial tax revenue for the City is palpable.
• The time needed for the full build-out of Sycamore Crossing — which includes a site for a “boutique” hotel — is ten to fifteen years.
• The realignment of the I-80 eastbound off-ramp is still not final.
• The intersection of Sycamore Avenue and San Pablo Avenue is a critical aspect of any development in the City, and a round-a-bout is not out of the question (including being paired with a pedestrian overpass). The mitigation in the EIR assumes a 15% reduction in vehicular traffic resulting from efforts to increase mass transit use.
• There is currently no outward goal to preserve the Eucalyptus grove in the southeast corner of Sycamore Crossing.

Additionally, it was mentioned that the construction of Sycamore Downtown should begin in two months, and construction will last approximately 18 months.