Title
PLN18-0231 - Addition to the Historical Buildings Study List - 1100 Marina Village Parkway. Public hearing to consider a recommendation to add the Shipways site to the Alameda Historical Buildings Study List. The property is an approximately 8.1-acre site located at 1100 Marina Village Parkway (APN: 074-1334-067, -024, and -026). The addition of the Shipways site to the Historical Buildings Study List is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act and no further environmental review is required.
Body
To: Honorable Chair and
Members of the Historical Advisory Board
From: Allen Tai
Secretary to the Historical Advisory Board
BACKGROUND
On May 3, 2018, the Historical Advisory Board (HAB) held a public hearing to comment on the Shipways Draft Environmental Impact Report. The Board then directed staff to prepare a resolution for the Board to adopt to add the Shipways site at 1100 Marina Village Parkway to the Historical Buildings Study List. This report provides a summary of the technical analysis to support adding the Shipways site to the study list.
ANALYSIS
On March 15, 2017, the Cavallari Group, Inc. submitted an application to develop the Shipways site for a multi-family residential complex. The City of Alameda determined that the proposal required preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A historic resource evaluation of the Shipways site was prepared for the EIR. The resulting study by Carey & Co, Inc. (Exhibit 1) found that the site is a historic resource due to its association with wartime efforts at a national level and the development of steel shipbuilding and repair at the local level. Marina Village, in which the Shipways site is located, was formally a regional shipyard that played a major role in World Wars I and II. The original complex spread over seventy acres and included the shipways, marine buildings for warehousing and constructing small parts, the power house, an employee cafeteria, several office buildings, employee hospital, and a turbine machine shop.
The Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation was set up in response to World War I and undertook major shipbuilding on the site. After the War, the corporation ceased making ships but continued its dry docking and ship repair operations. At the beginning of World War II, the Bethlehem Alameda Shipyard, Inc. reestablished and expanded to operate a new yard to construct large troop transports. The shipyard was reconditioned to handle this massive project of clearing the old buildings and constructing the new shipways. The aged facilities were redesigned and reconstructed in December 1942, with work continuing through 1943. The existing structures on the site are the remains of the 1942 Bethlehem Alameda Shipyard, which included four “shipways”, arranged in two pairs. Each pair of ways was served by three crane tracks, one in the center and one on each side, making six crane ways built of reinforced concrete to serve four building ways. The historic resource evaluation determined that the shipways retains sufficient integrity to communicate its significance.
The Board thus determined the shipways site should be added to the City’s Historical Buildings Study List in an effort to document the historic significance of the site because the property has strong association with World Wars I and II shipbuilding and the shipways retain significant association with its historical period of significance beginning in 1942 with the construction of the shipways and ending in the early 1950s, when the yard was used to maintain and repair equipment by Bethlehem. Adding the site to the study list will serve to educate the public of this historic resource.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The addition of the Shipways site to the Historical Buildings Study List is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act and no further environmental review is required. The City of Alameda has separately prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Report (State Clearinghouse No. 2017042021), which evaluates the environmental impacts of reuse of the Shipways site for residential development consistent with the property zoning and General Plan.
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 and approve adding the Shipways site to the Historical Buildings Study List as set forth in the draft resolution (Exhibit 2).
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED BY:
Linda Barrera
Planner II
Exhibits:
1. Carey & Co. Inc. Historic Resource Evaluation
2. Draft Resolution