Title
PLN24-0145 - Certificate of Approval - Radium Theatre Performing Arts Center Project - 2151 Ferry Point Way - Applicant: Scott Ward on behalf of Radium Presents, Inc. Public Hearing to consider a Certificate of Approval to construct an approximately 600-seat performing arts center and landscaped plaza on an approximately two-acre site of the Seaplane Lagoon Taxiway on the west side of Pan Am Way between the Naval Air Museum and the Seaplane Lagoon Promenade within the NAS Alameda Historic District and related offsite improvements. CEQA Determination: the project is subject to streamlined environmental review and a CEQA Checklist was prepared pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Sections 15162 (Subsequent EIRs) and 15183 (Projects Consistent with a Community Plan or Zoning). No further environmental review is required.
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Historical Advisory Board
From: Steven Buckley, Historical Advisory Board Secretary
BACKGROUND
Alameda Point Town Center Plan Overview
In 2014 the City Council adopted the Alameda Point Town Center and Waterfront Precise Plan (Town Center Plan). The Town Center Plan is a specific plan for transit-oriented development of the waterfront lands that surround the Seaplane Lagoon and the property along West Atlantic Avenue which is now part of the 68-acre Site A development. The Site A Development Plan was originally approved in 2015 and amended in 2022. Blocks 12 & 13 are located between the Seaplane Lagoon Promenade (waterfront park) and Naval Air Museum and are designated for commercial, entertainment, and performing arts space, including an approximately 53,000 square foot theater.
Land Use and Zoning
The General Plan designation of the site is Mixed-Use, which is intended to support “a wide variety of commercial and business uses” and is in the Alameda Point Waterfront and Town Center Mixed-Use Subdistrict which calls for a “vibrant waterfront experience that leverages the unique character and existing assets of the area to catalyze a transformation of the larger Alameda Point area.” The site is located within the Alameda Point - Waterfront Town Center (AP-WTC) Zoning District, which provides lands for a mix of uses that include waterfront and visitor-serving uses, including retail, service, entertainment, lodging, recreational, and medium to high-density residential uses. Development standards are intended to create a pedestrian, bicycle, and transit supportive urban environment designed to de-emphasize the automobile and create a mixed-use environment that supports the emergence of a transit and pedestrian-friendly mixed-use waterfront neighborhood. Development in this district shall be consistent with the Town Center and Waterfront Precise Plan.
Project Proposal
In December 2023, City Council approved an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with the applicant, Radium Presents, Inc. for the approximately 2.13-acre site made up by Blocks 12 and 13. An entitlement application was filed on March 26, 2024, requesting a Development Plan Amendment and Certificate of Approval (file number PLN24-0145) to construct a theater and adjacent landscaped plaza on a portion of the former Seaplane Lagoon Taxiway. The proposed Development Plan for Blocks 12 and 13 is attached (Exhibit 1 - Plans.)
Historic District Context
The project site between the Naval Air Museum (Building 77) and the Seaplane Lagoon Promenade is within the Naval Air Station (NAS) Alameda Historic District, which was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 with a period of significance of 1938-1945. The National Register Nomination (Nomination) confirmed the district’s significance under Criterion A (Events) due to its strategic importance as a naval air station during World War II, and for Criterion C (Architecture/Design) thanks to the distinctive examples of the interwar naval planning principals known as “total base design” - Art Moderne architecture, orthogonal site layout and carefully planned landscape design. In 2012, in preparation for nomination to the National Register, the Navy commissioned JRP Historical Consulting to complete a Cultural Landscape Report for NAS Alameda. The report concluded that the historic designed landscape should be considered a contributor to the NAS Alameda Historic District. The Nomination relied on the Cultural Landscape Report’s evaluation to affirm the inclusion of the designed landscape as a contributing feature to the Historic District.
Review and Approval Process
Pursuant to AMC Section 13-21.5, the Historical Advisory Board (HAB) is responsible for the review and approval of any demolition, removal, or alteration of the City’s designated Historical Monuments (including districts), via a permit known as a Certificate of Approval. The Planning Board is responsible for the review and approval of Development Plans and Design Review for all new buildings. In June 2024, HAB and Planning Board held workshops to review the proposal and provided feedback on key considerations, including site planning, design, circulation, view corridors and consistency with NAS Alameda Historic District guidelines and requirements. At the June 2024 meetings HAB and Planning Board appointed members to a joint ad-hoc subcommittee to work with staff and the applicant to further refine the project. The subcommittee met three times in the summer of 2024 to review updated plans addressing members’ feedback.
Over the past 18 months, the applicant has continued to refine the plan to address various technical items and the planned roadway design. During the same period, the applicant has been working with Base Reuse and Economic Development Department staff negotiating the final terms of a ground lease with purchase option to be reviewed by the City Council after the HAB and Planning Board act on the entitlement application. Attached as Exhibit 2 - Offsite Requirements, plans show the extent of both applicant and City responsibilities for offsite improvements, including an interim parking lot west of the theater and new roadways.
DISCUSSION
Infill Design Guidelines and Precise Plan Consistency
The MMRP and Alameda Point Zoning require new buildings within the contributing portion of the historic district should be consistent with The Guide, the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings, and the Town Center Plan’s infill design guidelines.
The Cultural Landscape Report design review guidelines for infill development, adopted by City Council in 2013 as an amendment to The Guide, are the relevant guidelines upon which the project’s consistency is evaluated. Within the vicinity of the proposed project, character-defining features of the designed landscape include:
• Paved open spaces between buildings
• Orthogonal layout of roads and buildings
• Deep building setback of Building 77 (museum)
• East-west views along row of Seaplane Hangars
• North-south views along Lexington and Saratoga
• Panoramic views south across the Seaplane Lagoon
The proposed building design has a generally square footprint, approximately three stories in height with square massing and rounded features. Between the theater building and Pan Am Way will be an approximately one-acre landscaped plaza. A new access road will be included between the project site and Building 77. The project design reinforces and preserves the historic district’s orthogonal layout with the building design and location, placement of the plaza, and placement of new roads and sidewalks. Character defining views and vistas in the project vicinity are preserved.
New view corridors are emphasized along the Seaplane Lagoon waterfront (east-west) and between Building 77 and Seaplane Lagoon (north-south). The flat topography is maintained to the extent feasible, with allowances for sea-level rise, safe circulation, plaza activation and to provide attractive ways to provide relief from the strong prevailing westerly winds. New circulation is complementary to the district’s character defining routes. The theater and plaza design elements reinforce and enhance rather than detract from the district’s existing features. The deep setback and low ground cover of Building 77 are maintained to the maximum extent feasible.
The infill guidelines of the Town Center Plan are intended to ensure new development along the Seaplane Lagoon Taxiway and around the Seaplane Hangars is consistent with the character defining features of the historic district. The Town Center Plan infill guidelines also facilitate the introduction of new uses in new and existing buildings and support the creation of a vibrant waterfront destination.
Within the vicinity of the project, key concepts of the infill guidelines include:
• Maintenance of view corridors to Seaplane Lagoon
• A continuous view along the northern edge of Seaplane Lagoon
• Consistency with The Guide, as amended.
• Maintenance of Building 77’s visual relationship to Seaplane Lagoon with a minimum 40-foot view corridor and limiting development on either side to 50 feet in height.
The project maintains the character defining views of the historic district, including east-west views along West Tower and along the northern edge of Seaplane Lagoon, and, north-south views along Saratoga and Lexington Streets which are further west. In addition, the project establishes a new axial view on the west side of the theater, centered between hangars 40 and 41and aligned with one of the four ramps into the Seaplane Lagoon. The project maintains Building 77’s visual relationship to Seaplane Lagoon with the 40-foot view corridor through the landscaped plaza centered on Building 77 with the theater framing the western edge and maintain water views toward the USS Hornet and the ferry terminal.
Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings
When determining whether to issue a Certificate of Approval, HAB must consider whether the project meets the standards established by the Historical Advisory Board and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings (Standards). Architectural Resources Group (ARG) was engaged to provide independent, expert analysis to assist HAB in making the findings necessary to issue a Certificate of Approval. ARG evaluated the project and provided the attached Standards Compliance Analysis (Exhibit 4).
Because the Standards were intended to be applied to a wide variety of resource types, some Standards have limited applicability to the analysis of new construction in historic districts. Standard 9 is the only standard that specifically addresses new construction, therefore it is discussed in the analysis in greatest depth and included here.
Standard 9: New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work shall be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.
• Regarding destruction of historic materials, while the two acre project will require the removal of some concrete paving, which is ubiquitous throughout the historic district, the removal is relatively small in the context of the broader, unaffected paved areas of the taxiway and operations area, and would not change the character of the 406.5-acre historic district.
• Regarding historic features, the project includes all new, standalone construction and would not destroy existing historic features in the vicinity such as the Seaplane Hangars, Building 77, and the Seaplane Lagoon.
• Regarding spatial relationships, several character defining features of the designed landscape are related to spatial relationships and are adjacent to the site of the new construction, discussed individually below:
o Paved open spaces without obstructions - These can be found throughout the historic district. While the project would remove some of the open space on the taxiway, in the context of the broader, unaffected paved areas of the taxiway and operations area, this change would not destroy spatial relationships in the historic district.
o Orthogonal layout of roads and buildings - The project does not impact the orthogonal layout, as the project is arranged within a strong orthogonal framework.
o East-west views along West Tower Avenue and the row of Seaplane Hangars - The project is setback sufficiently from the Seaplane Hangars and does not affect east-west views.
o Panoramic views south from the Seaplane Hangars across the Seaplane Lagoon - The panoramic view south from the Seaplane Hangars will be partially affected by the proposed project. However, panoramic views are not a single fixed view but refer instead to a multitude of views from multiple viewpoints towards multiple viewpoints. The vast majority of this view will not be affected by the project.
Overall, the project has a limited effect on historic spatial relationships related to views and cannot be said to destroy historic spatial relationships with the historic district.
• The design of the project is differentiated from the existing features of the historic district but compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing of the historic district. The design of the new theater is contemporary, constructed of all new materials, which differentiate it in a way that can be visually comprehended by design professionals and the general public alike. The design introduces a new use in a large building in a minimally developed area of the historic district. For this reason, the design carefully aims for strong compatibility with the historic district.
• The height, rectangular massing, symmetrical design of the façade with a recessed, two-story multi-lite glazed opening, projecting canopy, and recessed roof volumes with curved corners reference the massive entry doors of the Seaplane Hangars and the Art Moderne style of Building 77. The landscaped plaza has a contemporary aesthetic appropriate for introducing a new use to a historic district, anchoring new features within a strong orthogonal framework. Overall, the design is differentiated from yet compatible with the historic district in a way that protects the character defining features.
In summary, the Standards Compliance Analysis explains how the project retains and protects the historic district’s character defining features and is designed in a manner that is differentiated from its historic surroundings but compatible with adjacent and surrounding historic character defining features. Because the project appears compliant with all ten of the Standards, the project would not have a negative effect on the ability of the historic district to convey its historic significance and its eligibility for continued listing in the National Register.
Historic Resources and Environmental Review
The HAB is the first body considering discretionary approval for the project. In addition to making the required findings for Certificate of Approval pursuant to AMC 13-21.5, the HAB also must determine the project’s consistency with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA.) Pursuant to the streamlining provision of Public Resources Sections 21166 and 21083.3 and Sections 15162 and 15183 of the CEQA Guidelines, and as documented in Exhibit 3 - CEQA Checklist, no further environmental review is required.
Evaluation of Historic Resources
The project is being considered in the context of the Alameda Point Final EIR, which was certified by the City Council on February 4, 2014, in compliance with CEQA and adopted written findings and a Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP) by Resolution No. 14891. The Final EIR evaluated the environmental impacts of redevelopment and reuse of Alameda Point, including demolition of historic structures and construction of new buildings as infill development on the Seaplane Lagoon Taxiway, and concluded that certain impacts could be significant and that some of those significant impacts could be mitigated and some of those significant impacts would be unavoidable. The EIR concluded that, even with implementation of the Mitigation Measures 4.D-1a through 4.D-1c, related to historic resources, demolition and/or substantial alteration of NAS Alameda Historic District contributors could result in significant and unavoidable impacts. To the extent that the mitigation measures will not mitigate or avoid all significant effects on the environment, the City Council determined that any remaining significant and unavoidable adverse impacts are acceptable and adopted overriding considerations.
The project is subject to the MMRP, including Mitigation Measure 4.D.1a and 4.D.1b. Measure 4.D.1a requires a certificate of approval by HAB for modifications to contributors and resources within the Historic District. Measure 4.D.1b requires new buildings to be reviewed for conformance with historic district infill guidelines. These include The Guide to Preserving the Character of the Naval Air Station Alameda Historic District (The Guide), the design review guidelines for infill development in the Cultural Landscape Report, and the infill design guidelines from the Town Center and Waterfront Precise Plan.
Evaluation of Vehicular Traffic
The 2021 General Plan EIR determined that the redevelopment of Alameda Point consistent with the growth assumptions for Alameda Point over the next 20 years would not result in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) impacts. The General Plan EIR evaluated the VMT projected under 2040 General Plan buildout conditions; this analysis assumed that the majority of the City’s household and employment growth would occur in the Alameda Point and Northern Waterfront Priority Development Areas (PDAs) identified in Plan Bay Area, the Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy for the San Francisco Bay Area. The analysis determined that the average household VMT per capita is projected to decline by about 3 percent below the 2020 baseline, which would be at least 15 percent below the average Bay Area regional household VMT per capita, the applicable threshold of significance. Further, the EIR identified numerous General Plan policies that would directly or indirectly result in reduction of VMT. The project is also required to participate in the Alameda Point Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program, including Alameda Transportation Management Association membership, which would further reduce project-generated VMT.
Conclusion & Next Steps
The attached Draft Resolution (Exhibit 5) provides the Board with findings to approve the Certificate of Approval, concluding that the Radium Performing Arts Center is:
• Consistent with HAB standards
• Consistent with The Guide to Preserving the Character of the Naval Air Station Alameda Historic District as amended with the Cultural Landscape Report design review guidelines for infill development
• Consistent with the historic district infill guidelines of the Town Center and Waterfront Precise Plan
• Consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings
• Compliant with CEQA; consistent with the impact analysis and conclusions and incorporates appropriate mitigation measures from the Alameda Point Project EIR (2013) and is exempt from further review under CEQA.
After HAB review, the proposed Development Plan will be considered by the Planning Board to approve specific land use and development parameters. In April, City Council will consider approving the ground lease with purchase option agreement. The applicant is not seeking Design Review approval at this time. When the applicant is nearing construction, Planning Board will consider the final detailed design. The final design must be substantially consistent with the plans considered by the HAB for this Certificate of Approval or the applicant must obtain a new approval to proceed.
PUBLIC NOTICE AND COMMENTS
Property owners and residents within 300 feet of the project boundaries were notified of the public hearing and given the opportunity to review and comment on the proposal.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The streamlining provisions of Public Resources Section 21083.3 and Section 15183 of the CEQA Guidelines apply and no further environmental review is required. The environmental effects of the Radium Theatre Project were adequately evaluated in the Alameda Point Final Environmental Impact Report (SCH# 2013012043) and the Alameda General Plan 2040 Update Environmental Impact Report (SCH# 2021030563), and no further environmental review is required.
RECOMMENDATION
Conduct a public hearing and approve the Draft Resolution adopting a Certificate of Approval to allow construction of an approximately 600-seat performing arts center and landscaped plaza on the Seaplane Lagoon Taxiway near Pan Am Way.
Respectfully Submitted,
Steven Buckley, Secretary to the Historical Advisory Board
By,
Brian McGuire, Planner II
Exhibits:
1. Plans
2. Offsite Requirements
3. CEQA Checklist
4. Standards Compliance Analysis
5. Draft Resolution
6. Photos of area