A Lesson from Pinole
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 11 June 2009 — 2 comments below »
Nothing strikes a greater contrast between our City of Hercules and the neighboring City of Pinole than the current financial health of the two. While Hercules has recently announced an ambitious spending plan on capital improvements, Pinole is holding emergency meetings on how to trim costs (upwards of a million dollars), including cutting staff, and more importantly, reducing police and fire protection.
This reality runs counter to the conventional wisdom that retail — and, in particular, heavy retail — is the godsend for small cities. This was one of the main arguments in support for a waterfront Walmart in Hercules. (In 2003, the City Council invited the Arkansas-based big-box retailer into the City, and welcomed their plans. Fortunately, residents blocked those plans, and the City has finally reached terms to purchase the property, ending a long nightmare.) The need for sales tax revenue was the driving force for a Walmart in Hercules, and continues to be an argument for more traditional big-box, quick-growth development.
Pinole is well-suited with regard to big-box retail plazas, however Pinole’s current financial strain indicates that sales tax revenue is not necessarily a cure-all. Smart, sustained growth (and accompanying retail) is a much better alternative to the quick-growth, big-box solution. Although the latter offers immediate tax revenue, a large portion of that revenue must be set aside to simply police and maintain the new retail plazas. The City must have a need — and a plan — for tax revenue, not just a desire for more.
This is the principle reason Hercules must avoid such a trap (chasing the lure of sales tax revenue) and resist building Pinole- or Concord-style retail strip mall plazas along Highway 4. As recent evidence exhibits clearly, such revenue is not always going to be there, and the visual blight is just as costly, and permanent.
With the recent revelations regarding the true financial health of the CIty of Hercules it makes one wonder how much different we really are compared to our next door neighbor. I am not necessarily a proponent of big box retailers, but I think that a diverse source of revenue is a necessity. There has to be ways to draw business into the area without impacting local quality of life. For example, I believe improving freeway access to the Creekside Shopping Center would help increase tax revenue from an existing asset. Increasing the density of that existing development would definitely improve it’s value as well.
@ Dave Isherwood — Yes, an honest reporting of the city’s financial health would have greatly changed the thesis of this post. I wish I had known the reality.
I agree and would support increasing the density of the Creekside shopping center (same with Lucky); the parking lot is clearly under-utilized. I’m not sure how you could improve highway access to the site however. It seems to be blocked by the highway itself.
Maybe providing direct access to Home Depot where the on-ramp for CA-4 intersects with Willow Avenue (currently a stop sign), which also apparently doubles as a makeshift walking path for commuters who refuse to pay to park at the new transit center lot?
That stretch is a relatively steep grade, and you would have to cross the railroad tracks (bridge or traditional X-crossing), but it could be done, unless the City has plans to redevelop that parcel as part of the overall New Town Center project (which will eliminate the off-ramp).