Title
1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway Public Hearing to Review and Comment on the Shipways Residential Project Draft Environmental Impact Report and Project Design - Applicant: The Cavallari Group, Inc. A public hearing to review and comment on the adequacy the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and project design for the Shipways Residential Project application. The Shipways Residential Project Draft EIR (State Clearinghouse No. 2017042021) evaluates the potential environmental impacts associated with the approval and construction of the proposed project, and this public hearing is being conducted pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Linda Barrera
Planner II
Date: May 14, 3018
Re: 1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway Public Hearing to Review and Comment on the Shipways Residential Project Draft Environmental Impact Report and Project Design - Applicant: The Cavallari Group, Inc. A public hearing to review and comment on the adequacy the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and project design for the Shipways Residential Project application. The Shipways Residential Project Draft EIR (State Clearinghouse No. 2017042021) evaluates the potential environmental impacts associated with the approval and construction of the proposed project, and this public hearing is being conducted pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
BACKGROUND
Project Description: On March 15, 2017, the Cavallari Group, Inc. submitted an application to the City for a Development Plan and Design Review for the Shipways Residential Project at 1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway.
On April 4, 2017, the City of Alameda released a Notice of Preparation (NOP) notifying the public and governmental agencies that the City of Alameda had begun work on an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Planning Board held a public hearing to review the scope of the proposed EIR on April 24, 2017, and comment on the project design.
At its April 24, 2017 hearing, the Board expressed an interest in a redesign of the project to distribute the units among two or more buildings rather than the one large building as proposed, to create view corridors through the property to the water and reduce the building mass.
In response to the Planning Board’s request, the applicant revised its design to create four separate residential buildings instead of the one single building. To cover the additional construction costs of the revised design, the applicant increased the amount of affordable units in the project, which allows for a larger density bonus. With the larger density bonus, the applicant is able to afford the increased cost of the revised design.
On March 7, 2018, the applicant informed the City that it was revising its application to reflect the revised design with the additional affordable housing units. To comply with the requirements of CEQA, staff expanded the scope of the EIR to consider the potential environmental impacts of the revised design as an alternative to the original proposed design.
Therefore, as described and illustrated in Exhibit 1, the proposed project includes four separate multifamily residential structures of four to six stories, containing a total of 329 residential units, including 54 deed-restricted affordable housing units and 515 parking stalls. (The original design included one building, 292 residential units, and 40 deed-restricted units.) The project still includes a 2.5-acre public waterfront park, including a dual purpose dock for ferry shuttle service and public kayak launch, showers, bathrooms, waterfront amenities and an extension of the Bay Trail.
On April 4, 2018, the City published the Draft EIR that examines the environmental impacts of the proposed residential development. The Draft EIR is included as Exhibit 2.
ANALYSIS
Site Zoning: The Shipways site is located within the Marina Village Master Plan planning area. On October 2, 1984, the Marina Village Master Plan was approved by the City Council for the entire 206-acre Marina Village site. The Master Plan defines the basic development concept and permitted land uses for the 206-acre Marina Village planning area. Since 1984, the majority of Marina Village has been developed as planned with the exception of the present-day Shipways site.
The 1984 Master Plan identified the shipways site for residential use. There have been several efforts over the last 20 years to develop the site for both residential and office uses. These efforts have included a variety of different residential proposals and an office building proposal. All of the prior efforts failed due to a combination of factors that included: 1) local and regional market conditions, 2) the difficult and expensive geotechnical conditions on the property that must be overcome to develop the property, and 3) the restrictions imposed by the City of Alameda’s 1972 limitations on multifamily housing, Measure A.
In 2012, the City Council adopted the 2007-2014 City of Alameda General Plan Housing Element and designated approximately ten sites in Alameda, including the Shipways site, as multifamily residential development opportunity sites. This action brought the City’s General Plan and Alameda Municipal Code into compliance with State Housing law, accommodated the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), and achieved Housing Element certification. As a designated Housing Element opportunity site that is zoned for multifamily housing, the City’s ability to reduce the residential density of the project or deny a residential project on the site is limited by State Law.
The purpose of the May 14 public hearing is to receive comments and provide Board feedback on the adequacy of the Draft EIR and the residential project and waterfront park design.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The proposal is subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A Draft EIR (State Clearinghouse No. 2017042021) has been drafted and circulated for public review and comment.
The Draft EIR evaluates the potential impacts of the proposed project on the physical environment. In addition to being included as Exhibit 2, the Draft EIR is also available for public review on the City Website at:
<https://alamedaca.gov/shipways-1200-marina-village-parkway-alameda>
Transportation Impacts: The Draft EIR finds that the proposed project would result in significant and unavoidable transportation impacts to the local transportation system, largely due to the limited remaining capacity for additional automobile trips on the local system at the City’s two primary Estuary crossings at the Webster and Posey Tubes and at the entrance to the Park Street Bridge. The Draft EIR recommends a series of measures to mitigate the transportation impacts, but acknowledges that these mitigation measures cannot completely eliminate the significant impacts for automobile travel.
The findings that the City’s existing gateways at the Estuary crossings are at capacity and will be impacted by additional automobile trips is consistent with the findings from the Encinal Terminals EIR, Del Monte EIR, Alameda Point EIR and every other EIR that the City has completed in the last 15 years. The proposed mitigations are consistent with General Plan Transportation Element policies for transportation mitigation.
Cumulative Transportation Analysis: Similar to past EIRs, this EIR includes a cumulative traffic analysis that forecasts the automobile traffic from future City of Alameda projects and all future Oakland projects over the next 20 years. As described on page 4.L-26, the 2040 forecast includes the automobile traffic anticipated from all of the recently approved, but not yet constructed projects, as well as the anticipated traffic from development of all Housing Element residential sites, as well as the anticipated traffic from Oakland’s development over the next 20 years. The analysis was performed using the Alameda County Transportation Commission’s traffic model, which was specifically designed by the regional transportation agency for this purpose.
Emergency Response Times and Public Safety: At the public scoping meeting for the project, the Planning Board asked about the impact of the worsening traffic congestion produced by new housing projects in Alameda on public health and safety. Specifically, the Board asked if additional traffic caused by new housing projects impacts the Police and Fire Departments’ ability to respond to public health and safety emergencies.
As a follow up to the Planning Board’s request for additional information about potential public safety impacts, staff found that:
• Over the last six years, regional and local traffic congestion has worsened significantly. Over the last 20 years, the Bay Area has grown by approximately 2 million residents, and the Bay Area has added about 1.5 million new jobs. Since 2012, the Bay Area has experienced a major economic recovery, which resulted in a dramatic increase in regional traffic conditions and a major housing affordability crisis. With the worsening regional congestion, Alameda has also experienced worsening traffic congestion, particularly during the commute hours when Alameda residents attempt to move to and from the local Alameda roadway system to the regional roadway network, which includes Alameda’s bridges and Tubes, and Interstate I-880.
• Each year since the end of the Great Recession in 2012, the City has added on average about 90 housing units (450 units).
• Despite the additional units, between 2012 and 2016, the average response times for Priority 1 Calls by the Police Department have varied annually by less than 60 seconds and averaged around 2 minute and 30 seconds. Priority 2 calls varied annually by about 48 seconds and averaged around six minutes and 30 seconds. Since the response times vary by year (i.e., some later years are lower than earlier years), there is no evidence that the variation of response times is correlated to housing production or worsening traffic congestion.
• During the same period (2012 to 2016), Fire Department response times also varied, but with no direct correlation to housing production in Alameda or worsening traffic congestion. The Fire Department establishes a target of 6 minutes and 16 seconds to respond to a fire. The Department achieved its target 89.5% of the time in 2012, 87.1% in 2013, 91.8% in 2014, 87% of the time in 2015, and 89.9% of the time in 2016.
• Emergency Medical Service calls showed a similar variability with no correlation to housing projection. With a goal of 4 minutes and 36 seconds, the Alameda Fire Department achieved its goal 65.7% of the time in 2012, 67.6% in 2013 and 2014, 69.4% in 2015 and 66.9% in 2016.
In conclusion, staff found that although the City of Alameda has added additional housing units each year since 2012, which has increased the City’s population slightly each year, there is no evidence of a correlation between housing production and emergency response times in Alameda.
Cultural Resource Impacts: Upon receipt of the application in 2017, the City reviewed its historic resource inventory (Historical Building Study List) to evaluate if the project site or the existing structures on the site had been determined to be historical resources or had been added to the City’s Study List.
This review found that Marina Village was formally a regional shipyard that played a major role in the Second World War. In 1903, United Engineering Co. of San Francisco purchased and improved the property and built up an extensive business in repairing and dry docking steam schooners and other ships. In 1916, the yard was purchased by Union Iron Works, a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, which manufactured mining machinery, locomotives, and ships. In 1917, in response to the World War, Bethlehem Steel set up the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, and undertook a major expansion of its Alameda shipbuilding facilities, known as Alameda Works.
At the beginning of World War II, the Alameda Works reestablished as the Bethlehem Alameda Shipyard, Inc. and was modernized and expanded. The existing structures on the site are the remains of the 1942 Bethlehem Alameda Shipyard, which included four “shipways”, arranged in two pairs. Around the ends and sides of each pair were large preassembly and welding parks. Each pair of ways was served by three crane tracks, one in the center and one on each side, making six crane ways to serve four building ways. The ways were built of reinforced concrete. On the landside, offices, store rooms, locker rooms, lavatories, and specialty shops were constructed under each way.
The 2017 staff review also found that in 1984, despite the apparent historical relevance of the site, the City approved demolition of all the former boatyard facilities in the area to allow for the redevelopment of the property into what is now known as the Marina Village office park, retail center, and residential neighborhood.
Finally, the review found that in 1990, the City completed an EIR for an office building proposal on the Shipways site, and found that since all other evidence of the shipyard had been lost as the result of the Marina Village development, the remaining remnant of the former shipyards was no longer considered historically significant.
Despite these prior findings, the current City staff and the applicant’s team decided that a re-evaluation of the site was warranted. The resulting study by Carey & Co, Inc. (Exhibit 3) determined that the Shipways is in fact a historical resource due to its association with wartime efforts at a national level and the development of steel ship building and repair at the local level. It was also determined that the shipways retains sufficient integrity to communicate its significance.
Based upon this finding, the City has determined that:
• The site and its “shipway” structures are a historical resource under CEQA.
• Demolition of the existing shipways to construct new buildings on the site is a significant unavoidable impact to the environment under CEQA.
• Mitigation measures must be included in the project to minimize the impact, even though the impact cannot be mitigated to a level of less than significant.
• A Certificate of Approval will be required for the project.
The Draft EIR reflects the work done by the City, the applicant and its consultant and finds that the proposed project would result in significant and unavoidable impacts to Cultural Resources, due to the removal of the former “shipway” structures that appear eligible for listing in the National Register, California Register, and/or Alameda Historical Building Study List. Although the impact of removal cannot be mitigated to a level of less than significance, the Draft EIR recommends that the project mitigate the impact to the extent feasible by preparation of photo documentation and public interpretation of the shipways overseen by a Secretary of the Interior-qualified architectural historian and public interpretation of historical resources provided on the site. This could include a plaque, kiosk, or other method describing the historic importance of the shipways to the public.
Geotechnical Conditions and Structural Conditions of Existing Structures:
Given the unique historical resources represented by the existing structures, the staff analysis of the project has included consideration of options for reuse and/or reconstruction of the existing structures. Exhibit 4 includes an engineer’s report by Moffatt and Nichol, documenting the structural and geotechnical problems that would be encountered if an attempt were made to rehabilitate the existing structures for a residential development with a waterfront park. The report supports staff’s conclusion that rehabilitation of the existing structures is not a financially viable strategy for the redevelopment of the site.
Other Impacts that can be mitigated: The Draft EIR also finds that the proposed project would result in significant impacts to the following resources, but that those impacts can be mitigated to a level of less than significance with mitigation measures:
• Air Quality, Greenhouse Gases, and Climate Change
• Biological Resources
• Geology and Soils
• Hazards and Hazardous Materials
• Hydrology and Water Quality
• Noise and Vibration
• Utilities and Services
PUBLIC NOTICE
This agenda item was advertised in the Alameda Sun and notices were mailed to residents and property owners within 300 feet of the project location. No comments were received by staff at the time this report was written.
RECOMMENDATION
Hold a public hearing to review and comment on the adequacy the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and project design for the Shipways Residential Project application. No action on the proposed project is requested of the Planning Board at this time.
Exhibits:
1. Project Plans
2. Draft EIR
3. Carey & Co, Inc Historic Resource Evaluation
4. Moffatt & Nichol Technical Memorandum