During tomorrow’s meeting, the City Council will hold its first public hearing on the creation of an Art in Public Places program. The new ordinance would “charge a 1% fee at the time of issuing a building permit” for new development projects in the city, and its proceeds would be earmarked for the installation of “sculpture, murals, mosaics, fountains, and paving designs” using “steel, bronze, stained glass, concrete, wood, ceramic tile, stone, and other suitable materials.” The program’s funds would also be used to maintain the art as well as “purchase or lease sites where the artwork would be installed.”

There will be plenty of opportunity for public art in the coming phases of the Waterfront and New Town Center and this program will provide a vehicle for the City to pay for and maintain the pieces. The program could also help install, say, a veterans tribute monument on Hercules Point.

The City Council will receive a report on the Intermodal Station and Hercules Bayfront project at their next meeting on Tuesday — 7pm at City Hall. Other items on the agenda include:

• Construction of an “innovative classroom” for the John Swett Unified School District. Cost: $15k.
• Design work for the Bayfront Boulevard bridge. Cost: $78k.
• Additional architecture work for Sycamore Downtown. Cost: $152k.
• Consultant fees for proposed boardwalk along San Pablo Avenue. Cost: $66k.

The complete agenda is available on the City’s website.

UPDATE — A public hearing will be held on the creation of an Art in Public Places program.

A workshop to discuss the implementation of an interpretive program for the parks and public spaces in the Waterfront is scheduled for Monday evening, 7pm, at the Senior Center (next door to City Hall).

The planned Hercules Intermodal Station — expected to start construction later this year — was positioned to receive up to $6m from a federal TIGER grant, however it was not to be. The final list of grant recipients was diverse, although the U.S. Department of Transportation opted for larger profile projects in general, with grants constituting smaller contributions percentage-wise (e.g., $46m for the $1.05b Doyle Drive replacement in San Francisco). The DOT received 1457 grant applications, including 126 from the state of California requesting more than $3.5b.

The prerequisite for a project to receive funding under TIGER was that it “must foster job creation, show strong economic benefits, and promote communities that are safer, cleaner and more livable.” The Intermodal Station clearly met all of the criteria, therefore it is reasonable to conclude that our representatives were unable to secure the funding from a political perspective. Rep. George Miller has also submitted two local projects under the 2010 Water Resources Development Act, including funds to dredge San Pablo Bay in lieu of a ferry terminal in Hercules, however their ultimate inclusion remains to be determined.

UPDATE: One project that did receive funding — the Ames (Iowa) Intermodal Facility — is strikingly similar, in scope, size and name, to the project in Hercules. The Ames facility received an $8.5m grant for the $43.4m project.

UPDATE: Another project of note — Dubuque (Iowa) receiving $5.6m for a multimodal improvements project (total cost: $6.2m) that will “improve livability in the Millwork District by reducing commute times and providing new and improved travel options for walkers, bicyclists and transit riders.” Something that is easy to forget is that one of the modes of transportation for the intermodal (or multimodal) facility in Hercules is walking. It is not just train, ferry and buses (and parked cars).

The future Hercules Intermodal Station and “its relation to the Bay Trail will be discussed Thursday at a meeting of the Pinole/Hercules/East Bay Regional Park District [EBRPD] Joint Powers Agency board.” The meeting will be held at 2pm at Pinole’s City Hall.

The design team has been referring to the Bay Trail segment through the Hercules Bayfront project as the “promenade,” in part because it will be much wider than the standard trail and will be made up of stone or brick (not the typical black asphalt). The Bay Trail will be elevated above the adjacent railroad tracks in the immediate vicinity of the station.

During a Library and Community Services Commission meeting last summer, the City had stated that it would consider providing the maintenance along the trail through the waterfront if EBRPD would refund the costs (similar to the arrangement the City has with BART for maintenance of the new transit center parking lot).

This would be an ideal scenario as many residents are aware of the lack of care/maintenance currently provided by EBRPD along the trail. However, such a planned extension of the Bay Trail, as well as the proposed park on Hercules Point, will undoubtedly increase this area’s visibility to the parks district, and would likely require significant more maintenance investment by EBRPD anyway. That being said, it would be all the better if the City was able to ensure clean trails and parks on EBRPD land in the waterfront.

On a side note, for those that regularly use the East Bay Regional Parks (the largest urban parks district in the U.S.), please consider supporting the parks by becoming a member. The annual pass pays for itself after a dozen or so visits (especially if you have a dog), and the system is a true and plentiful resource.

In a somewhat remarkable turnabout, the City has released drawings of a redesigned café building that will be the focal point for the transit plaza in front of the Intermodal Station. The newly proposed design incorporates historical features (borrowing from the factory buildings that once stood on the site) and separates itself stylistically from the train station behind it, while retaining the modern, new feel overall. A solid redesign effort, to be sure.

A schematic of the redesigned building highlights the design elements…

A view from the corner of Bayfront Boulevard and Sanderling Drive (the front entrance to the transit plaza)…

And a view of the interior exhibits the proposed café’s openness (for both light and air)…

The agenda for the next Planning Commission meeting — Tuesday, 7pm, City Hall — is meager, with two public hearings set for new businesses on Willow Avenue (including a new restaurant), and commissioner and subcommittee reports.

The complete agenda is available on the City’s website.

The site of the old park n’ ride will have a creative temporary use called Market Hall. For the next two years before the permanent Market Town begins construction, a fabricated installation of food and entertainment options will activate the corner of Sycamore and San Pablo Avenues.

The Main Hall currently being assembled at the old park and ride.

The idea is that the various venders will be very flexible and ever changing because they all motor in and out every day. Market Hall will be a testbed to see the economic viability of differing merchants. If sales take off for a shop, they could likely be a candidate to become permanent tenants of the actual Market Town when it gets built.

Site plan showing temporary new uses (Lynx bus formerly stopped at I & H).

The goal is for the site to be open all day. Imagine it offering up coffee for the early bird commuters, breakfast, lunch, afternoon munchies, dinner, and late night fireside chats. After 10pm when it finally does close, a fence will lock closed, an around the clock security guard will be present, and an onsite camera system will secure the area like any shopping mall.

Viewpoint of future Airstream trailer park from same point as shown in rendering below.

There are three uses of Market Hall that I’m the most excited about. Moving the farmer’s market here would make it almost walkable, save for the suicidal crossing of San Pablo Avenue. In the hall itself, the dining tables could be moved aside for evenings of dancing, or even dance lessons. Also, car shows could be held in the open areas displaying anything from vintage Model A’s, Fast n’ Furious tuner cars, or perhaps testbed plug-in stations for alternative powertrains.

Airstream trailers open up to reveal shops inside.

This fluid and pliable style of market place will be first of its kind for the Bay Area. It has already been successful in L.A. with the advent of social media. If a gourmet Korean BBQ truck shows up, for example, the owner broadcasts a text message, tweet, or facebook post stating the day’s location and menu. This will be used in Hercules letting the thousands of workers in the North Shore Business Park as well as the rest of the city know what’s fresh and who’s got it.

Stylishly reconfigured freight containers become storefronts.

Market Hall is a very unconventional yet exciting addition to Hercules, and I have but a few concerns. This is not an environmentally friendly way to do business. Because it started in car-centric Los Angeles, all the venders drive in and out every single day. Every restaurant and store packs up and motors off to a home commissary for inspection and refueling. This dependence on the internal combustion engine is a very Southern Californian mentality, which is where the developer Red Barn is based.

Current example on site of tasteful architectural details used to dress-up a portable.

It’s great to see our town moving forward with projects of this kind, but it only emphasizes the troublesome fact that nothing physical has happened with the Hercules Bayfront land on the waterfront. Escrow closed on the old park n’ ride just a few months ago (Aug ‘09) and already the Market Hall site is buzzing with activity. Other than dirt being moved around, nothing physical has happened on the waterfront for over a decade.
The Hercules area is a finite economy. If the rest of Hercules gets overbuilt with shop, stores, and restaurants, by the time construction starts on the waterfront, the only remaining economically viable building type will be residential and office spaces. I salute the Market Hall project, but too bad it’s not happening on Bayfront Boulevard.

[Editor's note: This post was not edited for content (language, links, etc.) to maintain its commentarial integrity. -Jeff]

I have five preliminary comments on the proposed initial plan for Sycamore Crossing prior to Wednesday’s workshop…

1. The buildings adjacent to and facing San Pablo Avenue must be activated. They should have front doors and sidewalks and an interaction with pedestrians along the street. The buildings should not be oriented towards the center (in the suburban style), but outward toward the arterial. Parallel parking along this stretch of San Pablo should be encouraged. It will rejuvenate the San Pablo Avenue streetscape.
2. A consistent view corridor should exist through Sycamore Crossing into the central plaza of Sycamore Downtown/North (purple arrow shown above). It is currently shown disjointed, with a break at the first interior cross street. A consistent view will allow drivers and pedestrians along San Pablo Avenue to see the activity throughout the Sycamore district and invite them to go further.
3. The proposed driveway entrance at the midpoint of the Sycamore Downtown block is silly (red circle shown above). First, it will cause more traffic issues than solve them (left turns, right turns, drivers in reverse from diagonal parking on Sycamore Avenue). Second, it will be an annoyance for those sitting in the central plaza of Sycamore North with headlights blinding them during their coffee or dinner (especially with the short daylight hours of winter). And third, the utility of traffic will be easily provided by the intersection at South Front Street and the two entrances on Tsushima. This intersection and interior street aren’t necessary from a traffic perspective, and are deleterious overall to the pedestrian experience.
4. If the driving entrance is removed (item 3 above), and especially if the view corridor is developed (item 2 above), a delightful pedestrian avenue would become the central focus of the project site (blue line shown above). This would further enhance the pedestrian scale of the Waterfront.
5. The Eucalyptus trees currently located along San Pablo Avenue will be removed for the project. This is unnecessary. Although some of the trees may need to be removed during construction, or most of them, certainly not all of them need to. The Eucalyptus trees were planted for a reason — to shield potential explosions at the dynamite plant — and their removal erases another part of the city’s history. At least a few of these trees could remain, if only for cultural significance.

Tom Lochner reports on the interim use for Market Town… “Market Hall, a soon-to-come venue for upscale, mobile food vendors at Hercules’ busiest crossroads, is now receiving a warmer welcome from planners who three months ago expressed strong misgivings that it could end up as a tacky cluster of taco trucks, a flea market, trailer park or used-car lot. [...] There will be public and private events at Market Hall, likely including the weekly Hercules Farmers Market, which would be relocated from its current venue in the Home Depot parking lot on the other side of Interstate 80.“

A public workshop is scheduled for Wednesday at 7pm at the Hercules Library to discuss the future Sycamore Crossing project (located immediately south of Sycamore Downtown/North, currently under construction).