Tuesday July 21st 2015, a red letter date in Emeryville history: tonight the City Council in a 3-2 vote said NO to the Development Agreement for the proposed Market Place development on Shellmound Street; the first time in at least 35 years the City Council has said no to a developer promoting a project. The historic vote came down with the old guard (Davis, Atkin) standing against the new progressive majority (Asher, Donahue, Martinez) who cited a lack of public benefit as the reason for their vote. The historic NO vote does not constitute a rejection of the project it should be noted, rather a rejection of the specific Development Agreement for the Market Place project, a controlling suite of development conditions, findings and parameters that can be re-drawn, presumably making the project more palatable to the Council majority. It is not clear at this moment how the project will move forward and the developers hurriedly left the Council chambers refusing to comment to the Tattler.
Look to the Tattler to report on developing news as a result of tonight's astounding turn of events.
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteCan you tell us some of the salient, if contradictory, commentary between our representatives on the Council and the developers?
Hi Bob...Yes, there will be a follow on story to this forthcoming.
ReplyDeleteNo to the development of an underutilized long standing space in a growing urban area...that's progressive!
ReplyDeleteThat's correct. It's progressive to hold out for a project that doesn't make Emeryville a sacrifice zone in deference to a phony 'supply and demand' meme cooked up by profit maximizing developers and their right wing sycophants. It's progressive to not sit back and put developers in the driver's seat all while driving up housing costs and running existing non-wealthy people out of town due to rising rents. Holding out for more affordable housing is progressive. It's progressive to hold out for a project that supports our public schools. It's progressive to say NO to a project that pays Emeryville nothing but reduces our park land acreage per resident and reduces our locally serving non-formula retail per resident. It's progressive to say NO to another all rental housing project that dumps tons of traffic in our town...
DeleteThat's progressive!
You are correct sir!