March 8th, 2010
Martinez’s City Council is pushing forward with an attempt to form a redevelopment agency to help revitalize parts of the city, inlcuding the downtown and marina areas.
City staff members have recommended that the council consider the downtown, marina and North Pacheco area, which the city is trying to annex. Staff members also said the ordinance should prohibit the use of eminent domain on residential property; and include a clause dissolving the agency if a redevelopment plan is not in effect five years after the council adopts the ordinance.
Martinez pushes ahead with redevelopment – ContraCostaTimes.com.
Posted in Priority Development Areas | No Comments »
March 5th, 2010
Visions for West Oakland collide as some push for more homes and retail, while others want to attract new manufacturing and clean-tech jobs to the area.
Recipes for Growth Collide in West Oakland – WSJ.com.
Tags: Oakland
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March 3rd, 2010
(Photo by Patrick Tehan/Mercury News)
As part of the Grand Boulevard Multimodal Transportation Corridor Plan, Caltrans and local partners have released draft guidelines for transportation improvements and land use policies for the El Camino Real Corridor / State Highway 82 from Daly City to San Jose.
Study calls for skinnier roads, more room for other travel on El Camino Real – San Jose Mercury News.
The Grand Boulevard Initiative website .
Report: Draft Multi-Modal Access Strategy & Context-Sensitive Design Guidelines.
Tags: El Camino Real, Grand Boulevard Initiative
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March 2nd, 2010
(Dan Honda/Contra Costa Times)
An early push by public officials in the region opposing the Saltworks development on Bay land that could be restored as wetlands, and the extensive water rights from Kern County that could support it, put the Saltworks project and DMB Associates back in the headlines.
Environmentalists fight Redwood City project – San Francisco Chronicle.
Redwood City Saltworks developer poised to become major Bay Area water baron – ContraCostaTimes.com.
Earlier posts here and here.
Tags: Redwood City, Saltworks
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March 1st, 2010
New retail construction in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, with more housing on the way.
Fruitvale development ripens – San Francisco Business Times: .
Tags: Fruitvale, Oakland
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February 25th, 2010
As hard as it is to talk about during the current decline in home values, workforce housing is still expected to be in very short supply by 2025, according to the Urban Land Institute Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing.
Housing shortage ahead? – ContraCostaTimes.com.
Tags: affordable housing, housing
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February 19th, 2010
A Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit station design workshop was held in Petaluma for community members to provide input on what the stations should look like. Community input will be used to come up with preliminary drawings for the stations, which will be presented in a few months.
Petaluma gives input as SMART progresses | Petaluma360.com | Petaluma Argus-Courier | Petaluma, CA.
Tags: SMART
Posted in Priority Development Areas, Station Area Plans | No Comments »
February 17th, 2010
Bids for the Highway 4 widening project in East Contra Costa County have come in nearly $30 million lower than the anticipated cost of $91 million. The lower-than-expected bid is due to the weak economy, which has created a favorable bid climate.
The Highway 4 widening project includes adding four lanes of traffic, but will also result in creation of a median to accommodate BART’s planned extension to Antioch.
Bids come in lower than expected for Highway 4 segment in East Contra Costa – ContraCostaTimes.com.
Posted in Priority Development Areas, Station Area Plans | No Comments »
February 16th, 2010
Rendering of cafe seating in place of parking. Image - RG Architects, via Streetsblog.
Matthew Roth at Streetsblog reports on plans to convert parking spaces to cafe seating along Divisadero in San Francisco.
Following up on city experiments with converting street space to plazas, and annual Park(ing) Day, where groups around the world convert parking spaces to mini parks for a day, the city is set to convert two parking spaces in front of a cafe in a matter of weeks, once ongoing road work along Divisadero is completed. Similar to the earlier plazas, the conversion is temporary and does not affect the underlying street infrastructure. This makes it more affordable and allows the space to be converted back to parking if the experiment goes awry for any reason.
See Matthew Roth’s article for more details on the project.
Streetsblog San Francisco » San Francisco Takes Parking Spaces for Trial Sidewalk Extensions.
Columbus Avenue in North Beach may be soon to follow: Cafes get more sidewalk under North Beach plan – San Francisco Chronicle.
Update: Follow-up article in the San Francisco Chronicle. S.F. plazas, ‘parklets’ spout, squeeze out cars.
Tags: San Francisco, streets
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February 16th, 2010
Continuing to prepare for the pending closing of the NUMMI automobile plant in Fremont, the City is applying for a U.S. Economic Development Administration Planning and Technical Assistance Grant to look at the options for redeveloping the site, including a potential new A’s baseball stadium.
Fremont seeks grant for studying NUMMI redevelopment – ContraCostaTimes.com.
You can also find out more from a January 12, 2010 City Council working session on City staff’s Conceptual Approach to Oakland A’s Relocation.
Earlier reports on NUMMI closing here. and here.
Tags: Fremont, NUMMI
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