Tom Lochner reports… “Hercules officials are struggling over what to do with the half-finished Sycamore North project — sink more money into it, shelve it or pull the plug. [...] [Interim City Manager Fred] Deltorchio added that diverting money to Sycamore North could ‘kill the only viable project we have,’ a reference to an intermodal [...]

The City is establishing a task force to spur success for the long-anticipated Waterfront project. The task force will be open to all interested residents. The first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 24, from 6pm to 9pm at City Hall. The meeting will include updates and discussions of the Bayfront Project and Intermodel Transit [...]

I met briefly with the senior planner for the CCJPA (Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority) two weeks ago and asked him about the future station in Hercules. He had mostly good things to say, namely, that Capitol Corridor is waiting on Hercules at this point, and that he does not foresee any issues with getting [...]

A town hall meeting is scheduled for February 16… “The Intermodal Transit Center is in limbo. The city has yet to come to terms with the developer of the adjacent mixed-use Hercules Bayfront to sell the city 12 acres needed for the transit center. The transit center has a projected cost to the city of [...]

In all likelihood prompted by Mayor Ed Balico and City Attorney Mick Cabral, an ill-informed union bigwig — in fact, the same guy who randomly appeared and spoke against the Hercules Bayfront project at the September 14 city council meeting, and who also gave big money to Joe Eddy McDonald’s failed reelection campaign — wrote [...]

Tom Lochner is reporting that Hercules hasn’t capitulated to the state’s raid of redevelopment funds. It may mean that the City’s redevelopment agency is in even worse financial shape than recently discovered and that the long-promised Hercules Bayfront and Intermodal Station projects are at greater risk. [The Contra Costa County Auditor-Controller's Office] said that in [...]

The City Council approved the construction without demanding a full accounting of the funding stream…”Hercules City Council members, saying this is no time to lay blame, said Tuesday they were misled about the financing of the Sycamore North development, recently found to be running out of construction funds less than halfway to completion. [...] [Interim [...]

The City Council will approve a series of items, totaling $2.4m, related to the proposed HMU substation at tonight’s City Council meeting — 7pm at City Hall. The Council will receive a presentation on the Sycamore North project, which has apparently run out of funding midway through construction, and requires a hefty construction loan as [...]

Tom Lochner reports… “At a noontime community meeting at the Hercules Library last week, [Interim City Manager Charles] Long said the intermodal project has secured $25.8 million in local, regional, state and federal funds, leaving a $55 million gap. Applications for an additional $27 million in public funds are pending, he said. Part of the [...]

After months of pleading for the City Council to address concerns on the lack of progress for the waterfront project, the city finally placed the item on the September 14 agenda. It is illustrative of the relationship the City had with waterfront residents — at least before the election — that their response to that [...]

A waterfront town hall meeting will be held on Wednesday, from 12pm to 1pm at the library. The meeting will be hosted by Interim City Manager Charlie Long and will serve to answer questions regarding the status of the two projects — Hercules Bayfront and the Intermodal Station. No word yet on punch or pie.

The City Council and Redevelopment Agency will hold a special closed session meeting on Tuesday — 6pm at City Hall — and will re-enter negotiations on the Sycamore North project, which may indicate the City is looking to divest itself of the City-owned project, at least partially, or form a partnership, and help rebuild its [...]

The Planning Commission will receive a status report on the redesign of the retaining walls adjacent to the railroad tracks at their meeting on Monday evening — 7pm at City Hall. The proposed redesign will likely alter the dimensions of the Intermodal Station project site and be in conflict with the adopted Waterfront Now Initiative. [...]

In closed session prior to Tuesday’s City Council meeting — 7pm at City Hall — the Redevelopment Agency will enter negotiations over the Sycamore North mixed-use project (currently under construction). Details over what will be discussed have not been provided, however NEO’s role (doing business as AHSG) in administering the affordable housing element of the [...]

The Bay Trail receives funding… “The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a $10.2 million grant enabling the East Bay Regional Park District to close critical gaps in its nearly 200-mile paved regional trail system. [...] The application offered seven projects throughout the park district where trail gap closures would enhance connections to local and [...]

The City will commence negotiations with AndersonPacific in closed session prior to tonight’s meeting — 7pm at City Hall. As reported previously, the councilmember reports will take place at the end of the meeting, not at its heart. A public hearing will also be held on a boardwalk — a 10-foot-wide sidewalk — along the [...]

It’s a thorough (yet brief), honest and transparent overview of what is going on at City Hall. It includes updates on the Intermodal Station and Hercules Bayfront projects, as well as an outline of some changes the interim city manager — Charlie Long — already plans to implement. Two changes of note: the operations of [...]

The Draft EIR for the Intermodal Station was presented to the Planning Commission at Monday’s meeting and the City’s consultant walked through the rather complex phasing plan… The consultant dutifully outlines the order in which the elements will be constructed: the rail station, civic plaza, bay trail, ferry, Hercules Point, etc.

A public comment period for the Intermodal Station Draft EIR will be held as part of tonight’s Planning Commission meeting — 7pm at City Hall. (A public comment period is also scheduled earlier in the day — 3pm at City Hall.) The complete agenda is available on the City’s website.

All indications point to the City Attorney as the person responsible for the wording of the push poll recently conducted by the City. The results of the poll are due from polling firm Strategy Research Institute in time for tonight’s City Council meeting. It doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise that City Attorney Mick Cabral [...]

The City Council will announce the interim City Manager following closed session at Tuesday’s meeting — 7pm at City Hall. The Council will also receive a presentation on the Chelsea Wetlands restoration project and a follow-up on the Intermodal Station and Hercules Bayfront projects. The latter may include the results of the survey recently conducted, [...]

The City Council emerged from closed session at approximately 7pm on Tuesday, September 28, 2010, and Mayor Kris Valstad announced that there had been no reportable action taken. During the closed session however, the Council had approved a political push poll that targeted likely voters, a $24.5k-contract with Strategy Research Institute signed by City Manager [...]

Hello hammer. Meet nail. The argument that the push poll recently conducted by the City was simply an honest survey of Hercules residents on the subject of the waterfront development, as well as “affordable housing and quality of life issues within the city,” and not a purely political poll, took a major hit following review [...]

I received the push poll telephone call last night. I recorded it. It is now abundantly clear: the City is laying the groundwork and establishing the public support for eminent domain proceedings, and they’re doing so by presenting false and misleading information. This is going to be a disaster. The most loaded question came close [...]

The idea of utilizing hovercraft ferries for use as the potential ferry service component of the future Intermodal Station will be discussed in the Transportation and Housing Subcommittee meeting today — 11am at City Hall. The study has not yet been made public. Minutes of the meeting will not be recorded.

The City is ramping up efforts to take ownership of the Waterfront property through eminent domain… “A telephone survey conducted in recent days that has some residents of the Hercules Waterfront wondering about its genesis and purpose is related to possible upcoming litigation, city spokeswoman Doreen Mathews said Monday. She did not elaborate on the [...]

The City Council approved an apparent push poll, currently being conducted, aimed to turn residents against the Waterfront developer and help incumbents win in next month’s election. The poll, which costs $24.5k, was approved during closed session prior to last week’s City Council meeting and was not on the agenda. The poll is being conducted [...]

Reading the Draft EIR so you don’t have to. The Draft EIR for the Intermodal Station project includes alternatives that were considered in the past and withdrawn, one of which is for the station to be located in neighboring Rodeo… In the 1990s, the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee (WCCTAC) performed a screening process [...]

Amidst accusations that the City has purposefully delayed the Waterfront project at last week’s City Council meeting, pro-development councilmember Ed Balico made one thing clear (at 1:00 mark in video below): the City Council can fire staff. “If you think our staff are stubborn, you got to let us know that. We can always fire [...]

A candidate forum will be held today in San Pablo (starting at 11:45am)… “Hercules is facing public ire over the slow pace of development on the city’s waterfront, including plans for more than 1,200 homes and shops, restaurants, offices and an intermodal transit center.” That pretty much sums it up.

A study session of the “Intermodal Transit Center’s relationship with the Bay Trail, Waterfront Promenade and retaining walls adjacent to Union Pacific Railroads right-of-way” is the main focus of Monday evening’s Planning Commission meeting — 7pm at City Hall. It’s a purported discussion of the changes that will be incorporated from the hastily-adopted value engineering [...]

There lies a fundamental difference in opinion it seems between the City and residents on the central issue facing the future of the Waterfront development — both the Intermodal Station and the surrounding Hercules Bayfront project. While the City apparently sees the two separated as transit and housing, residents see it as a transit village. [...]

Candidate John Delgado addressed the City Council at Tuesday evening’s meeting, questioning the City Manger’s high pay (the greatest in West County) and delays in the Waterfront project… City Attorney Mick Cabral was directed to respond to the pay issue and he continued to spread the misinformation that City Manager Nelson Oliva’s base salary was [...]

Councilmember Joanne Ward responded to my email… September 15, 2010 Dear Mr. Wisniewski, Thank you so much for your e-mail message and for your attendance at our regular City Council meeting last night. In your message, you have requested me to “Please do what is right”. And, I am very gratified to know that you [...]

I sent the following email to Councilmember Don Kuehne this morning, along with a dozen roses. (Okay, I made that second part up.) Mr. Kuehne- I voted for you. I studied your background and honestly believed that you would be my representative on the Council. I still hope for that ultimately to be the case. [...]

The Waterfront developer (AndersonPacific) sent a strongly-worded letter to the City last week, demanding a return to civility and standard business practices in negotiations between the two sides. The letter suggests the two projects — Hercules Bayfront and the Intermodal Station — are in serious jeopardy. The letter also seeks resolution on the matter “immediately, [...]

The City Council will receive a communication from the Promenade HOA on the lack of progress for the Intermodal Station and Hercules Bayfront projects — a unique change of pace from the typically formulaic agendas — at the next meeting on Tuesday, 7pm at City Hall. The City will also spend $583k on street maintenance [...]

Presumably — and hopefully — for the sake of establishing an alternative to the long-approved plan for the Intermodal Station, the ill-fated and disastrous Szabo plan is presented as Alternative 2 (east of Refugio Creek) in the recently-released Draft EIR, albeit without the Szabo moniker (who is no longer a consultant to the City). A [...]

We are headed for a showdown over the Intermodal Station project — or a shutdown. The City has finally released the Draft EIR for the Intermodal Station project however has no rights to construct the facility on the land. Instead of signing a developer agreement (DOPA), the City is threatening condemnation proceedings which would delay [...]

Right on schedule. Well, sort of. The City has released the draft EIR for public review. The documents are available for download on the City’s website. The 45-day review period is scheduled to close November 1, 2010. The City has recently pushed back the estimated start of construction to April 2011.

The long-awaited and delay-plagued draft EIR for the Intermodal Station project is set to be released to the public on Wednesday. Or so it seems. (I’ll post a link when it goes live.) The release of the document clears a significant hurdle for the project. The remaining hurdle is the land transfer between the developer/landowner [...]

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 [...]