Council to consider development, design rules for northern Park Street
Council to consider development, design rules for northern Park Street
The northern stretch of Park Street is undergoing a transition from its former life as Alameda's Auto Row. Photo by Michele Ellson.
City leaders on Tuesday will consider a plan to replace the vestiges of Alameda’s former Auto Row with a pedestrian- and transit-friendly array of shops and housing, in the hope of restoring some of the sales tax revenue the city lost when the car dealers traded in Park Street for freeway frontage.
The City Council is set to discuss development and design rules covering northern Park Street and its environs that are aimed at boosting investment. If approved, the new rules will cover Park Street north of Lincoln Avenue, along with the Wedge residential neighborhood bounded by Park Street and Tilden Way and a corridor bordered by Park and Oak streets.
The area is being broken down into five districts, including a “gateway” district lining Park Street where a mix of retail, commercial workplace and residential uses will be allowed. Residential districts would remain in place, with mixed-use areas set between them as a buffer separating residents from businesses. Blanding Avenue would be zoned for maritime uses along with a workplace district that could hold commercial, light industrial and manufacturing uses.
The plans have been six years in the making and are being approved just as the nation’s economy seems to be creeping out of a prolonged slump.
The northern stretch of Park Street was once lined with auto dealerships that served as the Island’s primary sales tax generator. In the first quarter of 2003, businesses in that area brought in $323,496 in sales taxes, or nearly a quarter of the city’s total haul for that quarter; the city’s most recent sales tax report showed the amount had declined to $151,123 or 9 percent of the city’s total take.
Over the course of the last decade or so, the dealerships pulled up stakes and moved their operations next to freeways, which Alameda lacks. Those moves helped prompt planning efforts aimed at drawing investment back to the area.
The area has seen a number of changes over the years the new rules were being drafted. The Alameda Marketplace now occupies the site of one former dealership and a new retail space, Park Vista Square, sprung up in the ashes of another. A third retail site is being developed on Park Street at Tilden Way.
Auto-oriented businesses remain on the northern portion of Park, though; more than a dozen line Park Street, many of them north of Lincoln Avenue.
Dozens of residents of the Wedge neighborhood signed a petition asking the city to require some open space in the northern Park Street area and to offer a list of places where it could be created. A group called Project Leaf has been working to acquire the old Island High School site on Eagle Avenue to create an urban farm.
“It is a primary concern of the neighborhood that there is a disregard for a historic neighborhood's access to open space,” the petition says.
A preservationists’ group said that while they are pleased with the new development and design rules, they would like to see height limits for new buildings reduced from 60 feet and five stories to 40 feet and three stories. In a letter, members of the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society, who noted the northern Park Street district has some of the oldest buildings on the Island, said the 60-foot limit was added at the last minute and as such, “does not respect the public process and extensive previous work on this project.”
In a report to the council, City Manager John Russo wrote that the city can’t afford to buy the Island High property; he suggested open space advocates seek out funds to buy defunct railroad property on Tilden Way. And he wrote that the height limit for buildings in the rest of the Park Street commercial district is 60 feet.
In addition to the development and design rules, the council is to consider agreements that will help them implement a plan to protect the California least tern colony at Alameda Point. The agreements to manage potential tern predators and to minimize lighting and other possible nuisances for the colony will cost the city an estimated $24,500.
The council will also consider appointing Dania Alvarez-Morroni and Stanley Tang to the city’s Planning Board and Michael Robles-Wong to the Social Service Human Relations Board.
The council meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Avenue. The council agenda and materials are here: http://www.cityofalamedaca.gov/City-Hall/Calendar-of-Events?id=2108&a=20....
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