Residents vs School District: Pivotal Planning Commission Meeting Thursday

Meeting Thursday 6:30 

Are We to Have a General Plan?

Opinion/Announcment
In most cities, the desires of the local school district are the same or close to the same as those of the citizens.  Here in Emeryville however we've got a school district that's so single minded, so dogged in its pursuit of its ill conceived vision of the Center of 'Community' Life, the concerns of the residents have taken a back seat.  From the shutting down of citizens interested in saving Anna Yates Elementary School to the sneaky and budget busting Capital Appreciation Bond construction financing, this district has sought to end run around the interests of Emeryville residents.

Now comes the final push.  The School District is trying to squeeze fit the Center of 'Community' Life, a project too big for the cramped San Pablo Avenue site...it's busting at the seams and its violating our General Plan.  The whole project is spilling out along its perimeter, ruining General Plan identified quality-of-life amenities.  On the north side of the project for instance, the proposed 53rd Street Greenway is being compromised by a major shrinking down of the proposed wide sidewalk, destroying its capacity for benches, planters and other planned amenities.  The 53rd Street Greenway is proposed to be as pedestrian friendly as the popular 'Emeryville Greenway' on the north side of town.
The Center of 'Community' Life is also ruining the proposed 47th Street 'green street', again a pedestrian and bike friendly thoroughfare on the south side of the project and the proposed bike/pedestrian path along the west border is to be simply removed.  All these resident amenities are prescribed by our award winning General Plan but they all going to be dramatically shortchanged  by the Center of 'Community' Life because there's not enough space on the site and because the School District thought it could get away with acting the bully.

The General Plan is our plan and it's being wholesale abandoned.  The General Plan is a good plan and we should ask the Planning Commission to simply recognize this.  The Center of 'Community' Life can be built in harmony with our General Plan and that's what we should tell the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission needs to hear from us.  Please attend the fateful meeting today at 6:30 at City Hall.  Please speak up and add your voice to those who want a beautiful and pedestrian and bicycle friendly Emeryville.

Thursday July 25 6:30 at City Hall

the Planning Commission wants to hear from you

The existing 'Emeryville Greenway' 
the 53rd Street Greenway is supposed to be as nice

 

School Board Does End Run Around Community Comments at Special Meeting Monday @ 6pm

Last Minute Cynical Ploy By School District

Opinion/Announcement
The Emery School Board has called a special meeting for Monday to adopt the contested 'Mitigated Negative Declaration' document in their final push to move the Center of "Community" Life project past the objections of Emeryville citizens.  The plan is to "discuss" comments about neighborhood and environmental impacts they recently received from 27 concerned citizens and then vote to approve the project in one short meeting.

The School Board has announced they will discuss the 18 pages of comments, some highly technical, for one hour and then they'll vote up or down, to disregard the citizens and approve the whole project, impacts or not.

School Board President
Melodi Dice
Called for the meeting allowing
one hour to consider 18 pages
of community comments before
she even saw the comments.    

School District architect and project manager for the Center of "Community" Life, Roy Miller told the City/Schools Committee Thursday that the project is running up against "hard deadlines" and there can be no delays at this point, it should be noted.

Citizens should attend the meeting and join with the 27 neighbors written comments about this high impact project for Emeryville and the surrounding community.  The California Environmental Quality Act law provides that oral testimony must also be considered and Monday's meeting appears to be the last chance.

Unlike the regularly-scheduled Wednesday evening School Board meetings, the School District has historically not video-taped or broadcast special meetings, such as this Monday's, opting instead to provide the lowest amount of transparency legally permitted. Accordingly, it can be conjectured Emery likely has no  plans on recording this meeting, thereby adding another layer of secrecy to this project.

What's especially disturbing about all this is the fact that the School District received the 18 pages of comments from the citizens at around 4:30 PM on Thursday and by the next morning, Friday, they had already released the agenda for the special meeting.  The District had already decided to schedule an adoption of the Mitigated Neg Dec before they could even read what Emeryville residents had to say about the project.  This is what passes for "transparent" and "citizen engagement" of a "community" project by Emery Unified School District.  This is how they show their respect for people who will pay for this ill-conceived project.

It's obvious this School Board has made up their minds without even looking at the community's comments and even though the School District has stacked the deck against the concerns of ordinary citizens, people should not be dissuaded from acting as an agent for change for their community. Ordinary citizens can show their courage by confronting this highly cynical School District and giving testimony and providing witness to the real community.

Special Meeting

Monday, July 15

6:00 pm

Ralph Hawley School

1275 61st Street  Emeryville