Alameda County Voters Should Know John Bauters' Transit Record
Mr Bauters Overturned City Ordinance Controlling Parking to Accommodate a Developer's Wishes
What He Says is Different From What He Does
News Analysis
Former mayor John Bauters led a drive to approve a development with 496 parking spaces, an excess of 85 spaces over Emeryville’s maximum as stipulated by a City ordinance, refuting his new official narrative of him discouraging single occupant vehicles in his candidacy for Alameda County Supervisor. A July 2022 City Council action that highlights this disconnect came when favored developer Rich Robbins, CEO of Wareham Development, asked Mayor Bauters to overturn the City's Planning Commission who had earlier voted to enforce Emeryville’s rules on the number of parking spaces allowed for the Wareham project known as Emery Station Overland, a bio-science lab campus proposed for Overland Avenue.
The rules on maximum allowable parking spaces are codified by Emeryville’s Transit Hub Overlay Zone, a delineated area around the Amtrak Station of which the Overland project is in, that was certified as a City ordinance in 2013 to encourage commuters to not drive but to take alternative transportation. Limiting single occupancy vehicle use for development within the zone is central to the goal of the ordinance by limiting the number of parking spaces available.
Mr Bauters, who is running for Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 5 has been receiving donations from developers and YIMBY California (a developer lobbying organization) at a frantic clip, and he has also been telling Alameda County voters he is against single occupancy vehicle (SOV) use as a planning precept. Developers as a default, want more parking to be made available for their tenants and that is shown by Wareham’s Overland project. Approving the project as the developer wanted it is at cross purposes to the announcements made by candidate Bauters to Alameda County voters.
Mayor Bauters' Overland project decision allowed 20% more parking spaces than the Transit Zone allowed and would result in a minimum of extra 170 daily vehicle trips to the site. Bauters downplayed all the extra cars massing on the site by announcing the parking garage would likely be transformed in housing at some future date.
Emery Station Overland will be located on Overland Avenue between 62nd and 63rd streets.
Emeryville’s Bike Committee unanimously urged Mr Bauters to follow the rules and deny the developer the extra 85 parking spaces and one member, Jordan Wax, also personally attended the Council meeting and spoke out, but to no avail.
The Chairman of Emeryville’s Planning Commission, Steven Keller called the developer’s 496 parking space number “inflated”. He told the City Council, Wareham “did not convincingly demonstrate that additional parking is needed for the project” and the Council voting to approve would be making a “precedent setting mistake”. Although the Transit Center Overland project is located right next to the Amtrak Station, Wareham, for its part said Amtrak is no good and people don’t use it as a reason why so many private parking spaces are needed.
Vice Mayor Ally Medina supported Mr Bauters' idea to overturn the ordinance. Without providing evidence, Ms Medina announced, “[transportation] Mode shift does not come from denying parking spaces, it comes from infrastructure”, meaning the bike infrastructure alone in Emeryville will be enough to get people out of their cars despite the extra availability of free and easy parking spaces. Mr Bauters concurred, hinting the extra parking spaces will sit empty. A Wareham spokesman also agreed, calling the 85 extra parking spaces beyond what Emeryville’s General Plan allows a “win win” for residents and for Wareham.
Mr Bauters told the attending crowd, “We would love to reduce parking as much as possible”, but Wareham is going to provide a lot of bike infrastructure he indicated. However, Alameda County Board of Supervisors candidate Bauters, like Ally Medina, never explained to Emeryville residents how providing better bike infrastructure at the same time as an excess of free and easy parking would reduce the number of drivers.
Wareham is planning on breaking ground on their 496 space parking garage later this year.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 5 election is on November 5th.
Below is the video of the City Council meeting. The Overland project begins at 52:22. Public comment including those from the Planning Commission and the Bike Committee begin at 1:19:38. Council comment including those from Mayor Bauters begins at 1:27:40.
