Some rather incoherent commentary from our humble elected officials (on three issues: Intermodal Station and waterfront development, affordable housing, and the City Manager)… Highlights include: Joe Eddy McDonald stating that there would be no delay in the Intermodal Station’s federal funding (but not mentioning the construction delay), plus stating that the surrounding development has nothing [...]
The City responded last week to the news that the Hercules City Manager is the highest paid executive in West Contra Costa County. The response was rather bland, but it did include footnotes. And it hasn’t garnered media attention. There was some news made however, or acknowledgment of an as-of-yet unspoken truth. The City outlined [...]
The City has published a questions answered memo with respect to the apparent delay in the construction of the Intermodal Station (with the environmental documents currently a principal sticking point). The memo includes an updated schedule with construction beginning no sooner than April 2011, assuming no unanticipated delays of course. With the expected 30 months [...]
The project manager for the Intermodal Station project — Jesse Harder of HDR — presented an update to the community at the aptly named Community Update event in April. At the 1:40 mark in the video below, Harder, who must have received training to be a guest on Sesame Street, mentions that the City would [...]
Last summer the City published a project fact sheet for the Intermodal Station (screencap below), and its first and last bullet points are telling in light of the station’s delayed construction (emphasis added)… Hercules Intermodal Transit Center Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the Waterfront Project EIR are being prepared concurrently and should be released for [...]
Environmental documents need to be finalized and certified prior to construction commencing for the Intermodal Station. The draft EIR was scheduled to be released earlier this year with construction slated to begin this summer. Alas, that will not happen (summer officially ends September 23). And there will likely be no press release. It wasn’t too [...]
The City Council will receive a presentation at tomorrow evening’s meeting — 7pm at City Hall — on the consultant’s value engineering study for the Intermodal Station project. The study highlighted a potential $10m in savings (16 percent of total project cost) if the design and materials for the track-side retaining wall were substantially downgraded. [...]
Leave it to a value engineering study — conducted by the same firm (HDR) responsible for the design, but a separate office1 — to start pointing out elements the City could cut back on and save costs yet still retain the core function of the project, i.e., a train pulling into station, and dropping off [...]
Barring any further debilitating condition of the funding mechanism, Capitol Corridor (Amtrak) will be stopping in Hercules in early 2013 (with the completion of the Intermodal Station, albeit a full 8 years behind schedule), and residents will soon grow accustomed to the sight and sound of a train pulling into station… (The video above is [...]
This is bittersweet news. Waterfront developer AndersonPacific has released news that it has won an award — 2010 Gold Nugget merit winner (category 23) — for its Hercules Bayfront plan. That is very nice, however somewhat inconsequential, because it will do nothing to further privately-funded construction along the waterfront in the near-term. All work that [...]
The Intermodal Station project was unfortunately overlooked to receive federal funding via a TIGER grant (USDOT) earlier this year. The good news is that there will be a TIGER II, the sequel, which differs slightly from the original TIGER grants in that it is markedly smaller in scale ($600m compared to $1.5b) and requires a [...]
Representative George Miller (CA-7) — the long-time congressman and California political legacy who represents Hercules in Washington — has included $3.12m for the Hercules Intermodal Station project in his FY11 appropriations request. If appropriated, the funds would be used for the “construction of the Bayfront Boulevard/Bridge and the purchase of an express bus.” The project [...]
Up until now, the building across the street from the future Intermodal Station has been a placeholder. Through meeting after public meeting exhaustively discussing the train station, the building across the street was just a blank box. That is no longer the case. The developer AndersonPacific revealed their initial plans for the building during the [...]
Certainly not promising news, but a realization of the state’s troubled finances nevertheless… “Hercules has weathered the recession better than many of its neighbors, but a state take-away of redevelopment funds could force some changes of plans.” The following projects would be delayed if the California Redevelopment Association loses the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of [...]
There will be an informative update (presumably similar to the one provided to the City Council on Tuesday, but it may go into more detail) on the status of the Intermodal Station project at Monday evening’s Planning Commission meeting — 7pm at City Hall. The complete agenda is available on the City’s website (and it [...]
It is disheartening to discover that a councilmember that would most likely be in jail, or at least out of office, if it weren’t for the remaining councilmembers being a series of dastardly passive puppets, has such great influence on the developer of the Waterfront. What also remains unclear is exactly what AndersonPacific received in [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The City of Hercules is positioned to receive federal funding on a variety of projects. Tuesday evening’s City Council meeting includes a staff report that summarizes those opportunities, which include: $6m for the Intermodal Station (TIGER Grant, which should be announced by February 17); $1.54m for Chelsea Wetlands restoration (WRDA); $9m for ferry dredging (also [...]
The City listed the design components of the future transit plaza during their presentation to the BCDC design review board on Monday (which apparently went very well, as it should have; there is very little to quibble over with the project as a whole), but it included a more historic-themed hipped-roof cafe building as inspiration [...]
The staff report for BCDC’s initial design review of the Intermodal Station included an outline of construction phases, as well as a corresponding and somewhat complex figure that shows the construction phasing of station elements in plan (click image to enlarge)… Two items of note… the transit plaza and cafe building will be part of [...]
The BCDC’s staff report for its first review of the Intermodal Station concludes that “at this conceptual stage [...] the Board should focus on the siting and massing of the new station building, the amount and quality of the proposed public access, the proposed extensions of the Bay Trail, the proposed connections and circulation around [...]
BCDC’s design review report also includes a summary of future phases of the Intermodal Station, including the proposed cafe building…. Phase 2 — The construction of a café/retail building at Bayfront Boulevard with a covered transit waiting area adjacent to the Transit Loop and public restrooms, and an approximately 12,273-square-foot Transit/Civic Plaza in front of [...]
BCDC’s design review includes a report on the Intermodal Station that summarizes the initial phase of the project… Constructing an approximately 11,075-square-foot station building, providing grade-separated pedestrian access to an approximately 25,100-square-foot center island station platform and access to the UPRR tracks; Reconfiguring and relocating the UPRR mainline line tracks, including replacing the UPPR bridge [...]
The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) will conduct its first design review of the Hercules Intermodal Station by way of a public hearing this Monday… BCDC’s Design Review Board will hold a public hearing on a proposal to construct Phase I of a multi-phased project to develop the Hercules shoreline with transit-oriented [...]
The topic of future ferry service in Hercules made its way into yesterday’s agenda for the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) meeting… Hercules Environmental Review/Conceptual Design — WETA has worked cooperatively with the City of Hercules to prepare the necessary environmental documents to support new ferry service in coordination with a Capitol Corridor commuter train [...]
The city of Crockett has a handsome community board that is prominently located on Pomona Street (across from the high school). It is one of my favorite parts of a very charming city… I think it would be neat to have something similar in our planned transit plaza: an old-fashioned message board, possibly covered beneath [...]
When the Planning Commission made their recommendation on the design of the train station on October 5, 2009, the commissioners asked the design team how the modern design of Alternative 1 would work with the planned development that would surround it. The design team deferred to the developer (Jim Anderson of AndersonPacific) to answer the [...]
I should be clear. The proposed cafe building isn’t ugly, or bad architecture, or anything like that. It mimics the train station. It is what it is. When the design team, however, stresses the importance of the historic element in public workshops (i.e., rhetoric), and at the same time, the design team presents a modern [...]
When I labeled the cafe building, or mercado, as uninspired in a recent post, that wasn’t entirely true. The architect did, in fact, have inspiration for his modern design: himself. The cafe building is meant to carry the architect’s modern interpretation of a train shed forward through the transit plaza, engulfing the civic space that [...]
Outside of commissioner reports, the only item on Monday evening’s agenda for the Planning Commission — 7pm at City Hall — is a presentation on the status of the Intermodal Station and related infrastructure improvements, including Creekside Park, bridges and the temporary parking lot. One item that apparently will not be included in the informative [...]
The City doesn’t seem to get it; neither does the architect. It is frustrating. At last night’s transit plaza workshop, the City unveiled its latest — and apparently final — design of the cafe building (or mercado) which will define the transit plaza, and it is not good. The building does not resemble, reinforce, or [...]
EIR scoping comments are due… “Deadlines will fall the next two weeks for public comments on potential environmental impacts of two high-profile Hercules projects: an Intermodal Transit Center and the adjacent Hercules Bayfront mixed-use development. [...] The deadline for comments for Hercules Bayfront is Monday; for the Intermodal Transit Center, Dec. 30.” I had discussed [...]
In the site plan below I’ve proposed a few names for our future waterfront… I feel the transit plaza is the heart of our waterfront because of the importance of the train and ferry station and the adjacent community building which could also be thought of as a town hall. Town halls, train stations, or [...]
Congressman George Miller has submitted two Hercules projects to “the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for inclusion in the 2010 Water Resources Development Act.” The funding requests include $1.65m for the Chelsea Wetlands restoration and $9m for dredging the San Pablo Bay for the future ferry terminal. Some may deride these projects as “pork” (or recklessly [...]
A workshop for residents to discuss the transit plaza is scheduled for Thursday evening, 7pm, at the Senior Center (next door to City Hall). I’d think an antique (or replica) station clock, e.g., as shown below, placed somewhere in the public space would be neat… There is a replica clock in the historic part of [...]
When Measure J (the County transportation sales tax) passed in 2004, one of the items earmarked for funding was the creation of a new local bus-line called the “Hercules Waterfront Route.” It is obvious that the route shown is not preferable. It was apparently drawn without the knowledge that the extension of John Muir Parkway [...]
A scoping meeting for the Intermodal Station’s EIR will be held today at 5:30pm at the Hercules Library. The Intermodal Station is part of the Hercules Bayfront mixed-use New Urbanism project. Bayfront is a pedestrian-oriented development, and one big aspect has been the reduced number of lanes on John Muir Parkway, which was originally slated [...]
A town meeting will be held Tuesday evening — 7pm at the Hercules Senior Center (next door to City Hall) — to discuss the proposed creekside plaza on the north side of Refugio Creek (opposite the intermodal station, adjacent to the proposed parking structure). The meeting’s agenda refers to the space as “Creekside Park.” The [...]
The City will pay for an assistant principal at the Middle/High school for the current school year ($101k), as well as pay for a music teacher to rotate through all three elementary schools each week ($42.6k), as a result of the current financial woes of the school district (WCCUSD) and the State. The City Council [...]
When Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor trains pull into the future Hercules station, they will be part of a much cleaner fleet of engines… “A greener era in train travel has rolled into the Bay Area with the debut of an engine overhauled for $826,000 to run cleaner than any other diesel passenger train locomotive in the [...]
It wasn’t just a Saturday evening Halloween that came and went without incident (at least publicized incident), it was also the end of George Szabo’s reign as town planner for the Waterfront. Last November, the City Council mindlessly signed a one-year contract extension with the oft-maligned designer of the ill-fated Szabo plan. A follow-on contract [...]
A fitting end (or a new beginning, yada yada)… “The appearance of harmony that characterized the past few weeks of the design-selection process was a stark departure from months of sometimes bitter wrangling over the design of the station, part of a greater, years-long debate over the future of the Hercules waterfront that has pitted [...]
Councilmember Ed Balico demanded that Bayfront Boulevard be renamed in order to increase property values at the last City Council meeting (in a discussion on the design of the intermodal station). Balico offered Waterfront Drive as being “more appealing.” (At ~0:25, Balico says that “it has to be changed.”) The argument that “waterfront” property is [...]
As expected, the City Council unanimously recommended Alternative 1 as the preferred intermodal station design last night. The process has come to an end. More surprising was Councilmember Ed Balico’s odd request that Bayfront Boulevard be renamed Waterfront Boulevard (or similar) so people will know that it is on the water. I’m confused too. First, [...]
The City Council will choose the train station design at tonight’s City Council meeting — 7pm at City Hall — and will likely choose Alternative 1 (which was preferred by the Planning Commission). The Council (acting as the Redevelopment Agency) will also expand the contract with HDR for the construction of the intermodal station — [...]
There are two train station-related discussions that never took place — with the public, at the Planning Commission, or even at the City Council level — and that is unfortunate. They are… the decision to build a plaza-based minimalist station instead of a singular signature multi-use building; and the decision for a more modern (or [...]
At last night’s Planning Commission meeting, the Planning Commission slowly but surely recommended Alternative 1 after receiving a presentation on the final two alternatives from the design team. Commissioners deVera, Maltez and Mitchell all voiced their favor for Alternative 1, and Chair McCoy deferred to the design team (which also recommended Alternative 1). Commissioner Bibal [...]