Twice Burned 'Maz' Project Developer Burned by Council: Noise Ordinance Waiver Denied

Historic Vote:

City Council Majority Says 'NO' to Developer's Noise Ordinance Waiver Request

'Maz' Developer Used Past Fires as Excuse to Work Weekends
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Neighbors Told to Give Up Their Quiet Weekends 
Because Developer Wants to Save Money on Security

The Emeryville City Council made history Tuesday night when they voted to deny a noise ordinance waiver request, only the fifth such denial in more than 15 years, after the developer applicant offered an unorthodox argument that his noisy construction project needs to be completed quickly to make for a smaller window of opportunity for arsonists to set fires there.  The peculiar offering failed to convince the Council majority (3-2 Medina, Martinez dissenting) to ask residential neighbors around the apartment project at 3800 San Pablo Avenue, to give up their peace and quiet weekends from now until April 2020, the duration of the request.

Developers commonly ask for waivers to Emeryville’s noise ordinance based on the weather or other ‘unforeseen' complications but the fire vulnerability angle was the first such waiver request made by any applicant.  Since every construction project is vulnerable to fire until suppressive water sprinkler systems can be installed, a waiver granted by the Council on Tuesday would have set a sweeping precedent, potentially nullifying the whole ordinance.

Council Members Dianne Martinez & Ally Medina
Together they feel the public has no expectancy of
weekend peace and quiet in Emeryville...
not if a developer says he wants to
save money on security.

The City staff, continuing their near perfect record of recommending waivers, told the Council it is prudent for them to make the residents suffer through seven day per week construction noise until the project’s completion.  Planning Director Charlie Bryant said the Council should grant the waiver to the developer carte blanche, calling it “reasonable” because, “…the site was burned twice” in 2016 and 2017.

At least four City Council members seemed to agree, at least initially.  Council member John Bauters, who ultimately voted NO, indicated he thought the request was tough to turn down, “This is a hard one for me” he said.

Councilman Scott Donahue indicated he thought the fire vulnerability excuse was a good one but the modular construction technique the developer is using means wood framing members will arrive at the site with fire retardant already applied and consequently, neighbors should be able to expect weekend peace and quiet he said.  Councilwoman Dianne Martinez was less circumspect, “I don’t love weekend work but I’m inclined to grant the waiver” she said after she told the developer she felt his pain; the fires at the project were “very bad” she added. 
Mayor Ally Medina, acknowledging that it wasn’t up to the City of Emeryville to ask that the developer provide better security in the future, tried to strike a compromise.  She moved that the construction noise be limited to Saturdays.  Mr Bauters however said that condition was “not specific enough of a request for me to grant approval at this time” as he joined Mr Donahue and Vice Mayor Christian Patz in their historic noise ordinance waiver NO vote.

Council Member John Bauters
He struggled with the decision:
should developers be asked to spend
more money on security to help
neighbors have quiet weekends?
"This is a hard one for me" he said.

The developer’s representatives Tuesday night happily took up their narrative that adding security at their site isn’t a thing for them and Emeryville residents should instead take up the slack and do them a kindness by allowing seven day a week work.
Regardless of their 3-2 vote, notably, no Council members or the staff suggested the developer spend more money on security to protect against possible future arsonists, instead letting the developer’s narrative stand.

Emeryville's noise ordinance, enacted in 2003, has been seen as an irritation for developers who are rarely required to abide by it but usually have been required to provide a reason why they shouldn't have to follow it.  Many developers have shown their displeasure in having to appear before the City Council to go through the sometimes humiliating spectacle of presenting a plausible explanation for why they shouldn't be constrained.
While most developers settle on using rain delays as a reason to ask for a waiver, more brazen reasons have been stated such as "complicated nature of the work" or that the public, expecting quiet weekends will get them sooner if the developer can "finish faster".  Remarkably, that developer, City Center Partners at the Public Market, got caught when they couldn't even abide by their waiver, taunting the Council by starting their granted Saturday work before the agreed to time.  After twice being warned, the Council finally revoked the waiver in an unprecedented sanction in 2017.
In an even more audacious request, the developer of the Transit Center, Wareham Development, successfully trotted out the most unabashed reason we've heard a couple of years ago; "because we really want it".  No other developer has used the 'we really want it' excuse for a waiver request since.
The City Council itself got into the act last April one upping Wareham when they granted a developer's waiver request inexplicably by waiving the waiver request, saving the developer and the citizens the bother of conducting a public hearing at all.

The Maz project, also known as "The Intersection" with its unit mix heavily skewed towards studio and one bedroom apartments together with zero affordability, has been controversial since it was approved by a divided Council in 2013.  In a 2013 opinion piece, the Tattler’s editor Brian Donahue famously called the project a “men’s dorm” owing to its anti-family unit mix attractive to techies, drawing an accusation of felony arson in the two fires by Rob Arias, the editor of Emeryville’s business friendly blog, the E’Ville Eye.

Tattler Editor Named As Felony Arson Suspect

Tattler Editor Prime Suspect

in San Pablo Avenue Fire

Says E'Ville Eye Editor

The ATF and the Emeryville Police
Department call this person the prime
suspect.  Don't be fooled says
Rob Arias, this photo is fake news
distributed by a duped ATF/EPD.

The Emeryville Tattler editor Brian Donahue has been named as a prime suspect in a felony arson fire in a San Pablo Avenue apartment project at a June 8th joint EPD/ATF press conference held at the Emeryville police station.  The announcement came from the sidelines; Rob Arias, editor of the E'Ville Eye, a pro-business and developer friendly blog in town.  Mr Arias' announcement was not picked up by the gaggle of media outlets or Emeryville Police Chief Jennifer Tejada or the Federal agents from the bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms who told the assembled throng they chose instead to highlight a different suspect; a mysterious bicyclist caught by one of the 12 security cameras at the site.

The May 13th conflagration has been reported on widely by the Bay Area press corps likely because it was the second such fire in 10 months at the 'Maz' development site under construction.

Mr Arias implored attendees at the press conference to not be hoodwinked by the presentation of the photograph showing a bicyclist revealed by ATF agents but instead to direct their attention to the Tattler editor whom he revealed had done negative stories on the development project.   "Brian Donahue is the Mayor's own brother...he called the [Maz] development a 'men's dorm'" Mr Arias proclaimed, attempting to stoke the imaginations of any conspiratorially minded law officers or reporters at the conference.

E'Ville Eye Editor Rob Arias
Don't listen to the
Emeryville Police or the ATF;
Brian Donahue is the REAL suspect.

The Tattler has long called for residential development projects better than the Maz project.  Specifically, Emeryville needs more affordable units, more family friendly housing and more ownership condos, none of which Maz delivers on.

 Mr Arias's call for the arrest of the editor of the Tattler on June 8th was not his first; he has put his blog to work chronicling the crimes of Mr Donahue since he began the E'Ville Eye several years ago.  Careful readers of that blog will note however that despite the allegations of crimes committed, Mr Donahue, the editor of the other blog in Emeryville, hasn't been jailed or even arrested for his many crimes highlighted by Rob Arias in his blog.  Those facts however have not constrained Mr Arias and his heavily monetized E'Ville Eye who continue to warn anyone who will listen in Emeryville about how dangerous the Tattler is and why it needs to be shut down.

Mr Arias refused to comment for this story.
 

'Maz' Building Burns Again

San Pablo Apartment Building Burns Down 2nd Time

Despite two armed guards and 12 security cameras on duty, 'The Intersection' apartment project, also known as the Maz Project burned down Saturday night.  This is the second time for a suspicious fire in the controversial building happening before fire sprinklers were installed, the first fire happening at about the same point in the construction process 10 months ago.
Mayor Scott Donahue noted at least 35 ATF agents will be investigating the fire and he said of the developer, Rick Holliday who plans on building the project a third time, "I admire Mr Holliday's determination. He's probably the most Sisyphean developer in Emeryville history."


Demolition fire crews pulled down the construction crane Sunday night, creating a spectacular scene as the 44,000 pound counterweight crashed to the ground.  The Mayor said the neighboring Avelon senior housing building was evacuated in case of a possible trebuchet effect from the massive crane that could have impacted the Avelon building.

The apartment building has been criticized by many in town owing to it's lack of affordable family units and 100% market rate rental status.  The Tattler called the building a "men's dorm" and a "techie dorm" because of the large number of studio and one bedroom apartments in the approved but yet to be built apartment building.

Video credit: Lillian Schroth

Maz Project Burns: "Biggest Fire in Decades"

At 2:45 AM today Alameda County Fire Department received the call; the Maz housing project at 39th Street and San Pablo Avenue was in flames.  The fire, fueled by the bare wood studs of the 6 story project still under construction, quickly turned into a six alarm conflagration that was still burning at 9:00 this morning.  One unnamed firefighter called it the biggest fire in decades for Emeryville.  No injuries have been reported at what is being designated as a crime scene.

Emeryville Closes Out Year With Lots of 100% Rental Development

More Than 1000 Residential Rental Units Coming

Change in Emeryville Demographics 

Where's the Public Debate?

Opinion
The City of Emeryville is ending the year with a big push to add new residents.  Lots of residents, all in four 100% rental development projects.  These four projects will deliver 1045 new units and increase the population of our town by 15%.  In a city with only 10,000 residents, that represents a substantial increase.  After years of condo building in Emeryville, these all rental projects are a real change and will dramatically transform the demographics for our town.

The following new projects are either already approved or moving to approval and are 100% rental:

• Sherwin Williams Project: 460 units
• Avalon Bay project: 260 units
• Marketplace phase one: 225 units
• Maz project: 100 units

At 1045 rental units, some with more than one dweller, the increase in population will probably be over 1500.  Adding to this number are other rental units at new development projects either approved, recently finished or in the pipeline that are not 100% rental but contain some condos.

A new Emeryville resident

Rental residents tend to be different from homeowner residents.  They aren't as vested in their towns and they tend to be less civically minded.  Recent renters in Emeryville specifically have been primarily made up of San Francisco tech workers looking for cheaper rent than San Francisco offers.  These workers tend to be single and work long hours meaning they tend to drive in, "cocoon" and drive out.  The result is an under utilized commons, with a populace that generally feels little allegiance to the neighborhood or the town.   Also, renters tend to look less critically at civic projects involving raises in property taxes, increasing the opportunity for abuses by decision makers and developers that would stand to benefit.

Emeryville is experiencing this 100% rental building boom because the rental market in the Bay Area is extremely robust right now and developers are eager to cash in.  With its well earned reputation for accommodating developers, City Hall has stepped up to the plate and quickly moved these projects forward.  

The City Council is letting this wave wash over us.  They're letting the developers do what they want to do...and what they want to do now is build rental units.  What the Council is not allowing is a public debate about this.

Emeryville City Council members have historically never been fond of city planning.  They've never been known to defer to planning regulations, opting instead to let developers build our town as the real estate market dictates....so there's no change here in that regard.  But what IS different, what HAS changed is that profit maximization in the market now dictates that 100% rental only projects be built, and that promises to change our town.  We need to be aware this resulting development will be here for generations to come.  Is this something we want?  Is it wise?  Is this something that will improve our town?  

There should be a public debate about this.

Maz Project: Men's Dormitory Approved for San Pablo Avenue

"Family Friendly Housing" is to Emeryville Political Jargon as "Middle Class" is to Washington Political Jargon

Opinion
Everywhere you turn in Washington DC you hear politicians exclaim how their focus is on the middle class, about how they're going to help the middle class.  It's middle class this and middle class that.  It comes from both parties.  And yet the help never seems to come; the people keep waiting.
As it goes in Washington so too it goes in Emeryville.  Except here, it's not the middle class that goes wanting amid all the hyperbole, here it's "family friendly housing".  Emeryville's decision makers are united: we desperately need family friendly housing they say.  Like in Washington, the over heated rhetoric is wall to wall at City Hall.  Except as an aside, at the Housing Committee where until recently they didn't even list family friendly housing as one of its seven goals (oops! get in line guys!) until the Tattler exposed them.  Now they too are towing the line and they're listing family friendly housing as one of the goals.

As with their Washington counterparts, Emeryville City Council members seem to think all they need to do is say they're for family friendly housing enough and that essential category is then taken care of.  Either that or they just like to hear themselves talk.

The City Council tells us Emeryville
would be a better place to live
if we had more of this.

Need proof?  Check out the MAZ Project on San Pablo Avenue at Adeline Street that was just approved by the City Council (Jac Asher voted NO and Jennifer West had a conflict of interest and did not vote).  After a year of very public gum flapping about the need to bring family friendly housing to Emeryville, the Council quietly said yes to this project with its 105 rental units perched in a podium above a parking garage.  Sound familiar?
The apartments are comprised of 60 studio apartments, 20 one bedroom units, 20 two bedroom units and five four bedroom units, all market rate rental.  Oh, and there's also 5 one bedroom lofts for rent.   The street level will have the ubiquitous retail that's sat empty in so many other projects.  No tenants have been lined up.  By now it should sound very familiar.

It all makes for a housing project for "younger people that are seeking an interesting place to live" according to Rick Holliday, the developer for the project.  He noted the tenants would likely be more of what Emeryville has been building for the last decade and a half, "I don't see a wide age range there" he told the Tattler.
At least Emeryville's Ikea store stands to benefit by this project.

Who's going to rent this?
The Council thinks this rental 
demographic is
under represented in Emeryville.

Men's Dormitory
No wide age range indeed.  Maz is yet another techie dorm for young single men commuting to San Francisco seeking cheaper rent than that city offers. This project is a carbon copy of every other housing project approved by this Council for the last fifteen years, the years we earned the enmity of planning professionals for our lack of family friendly housing.  Notable too in this debacle is the complete lack of interest from the School Board in this Maz project (or any other housing project).   They are spending some quarter billion dollars on our new school at the Center of Community Life but there's a disconnect when it come time to supporting housing for families needed to assure success for the new school project.

Pro-developer ideologues, this City Council will finally deliver family friendly housing when some developer thinks he can make a buck off it.  Until that day, look to City Hall to talk the family friendly talk and walk the men's dormitory walk.  Sound familiar?

City To The Poor: You People Are "Not A Good Fit"

City: "We've "Invested Millions Of Dollars On The Improvement Of The San Pablo Area", We Don't Want Poor People Mucking It Up

Opinion
The City Council agrees with the staff: poor people are not a good fit at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and 38th Street in Emeryville...especially since they've spent a lot of money fixing up the area.

A Christian outreach organization to the poor called Ohana Community Outreach, expressed interest in expanding the former Emeryville Community Action Program (ECAP) emergency support for the poor by purchasing a building at 3800 San Pablo Avenue (sometimes called the MAZ building) to be used as the outreach central location.  ECAP and now Ohana have been dispensing help for the poor in a cramped building a couple of blocks south of the Maz site but they want to expand.  And that's where the trouble arises.
In an April 3rd memo from Emeryville City Manger Pat O'Keeffe to the city council, the council is reminded about the sizable investment the city has made to that part of San Pablo Avenue, specifically that intersection, called the Star Intersection.
Summing up the recalcitrance for having poor people congregate in the new proposed building use, Mr O'Keeffe reminded the council the Community Development Commission (formerly called the Redevelopment Agency and comprised of the city council members) had set a development path for the area and it's incompatible with poor people.
The memo asserts, "With respect to [Ohana's] use of the space at 3800 San Pablo Avenue, the city council concurred with staff that this location is not a good fit with the Commission's plans for the Star Intersection.  The City and the Commission have invested millions of dollars of redevelopment funds on the improvement of this area."

Ohana for its part has pledged to not use any public funds to engage in any religious proselytizing or other such activities, instead using those funds for emergency help for the poor only.

Outraged over proposed city cuts to funding for the poor through ECAP/Ohana, former councilman Ken Bukowski has been taking it to City Hall: The city needs to continue it's modest support for the poorest among us by continuing to fund emergency food and clothing aid instead of cutting it he says.  It's a basic question of priorities; after all City Hall gives lavishly to favored developers, millions in subsidies for development projects, some with questionable returns.  He has been calling on the city to continue the funding at the approximately same rate the city has historically paid ECAP: $50,000 per year.  We agree with Mr Bukowski. 

But the city's attempt to thwart Ohana's legitimate purchase of the Maz building is a bridge too far.  This April 3rd memo, while we admire its naked transparency in revealing City Hall's behind-the-scenes anti-poor organizing principles, is outrageous.  We call on City Hall to reveal their real intentions regarding our collective responsibilities towards the poor in our midst's.