Bil Paul

Measure Q project has lots of flaws

Published Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004

Soon, Redwood City voters -- via Measure Q in November's general election -- will have their say on the fate of the Marina Shores Village development, which will replace Pete's Harbor.

The proposed development's not without its problems. Traffic is the obvious and major concern, but what about some of the lesser-known issues?

For starters, Redwood City has a fresh water deficiency. The city has been exceeding its allocation from the San Francisco Water Department by 10 percent, and state law requires that cities prove they have enough water to supply new developments before the projects can proceed. Redwood City hopes that its new program to recycle water (water that the waste treatment plant usually discharges into the Bay) for irrigation will reduce its consumption of fresh water. But I haven't seen any proof that this will eliminate the water deficit. Its success would also seem to depend on the cooperation of business owners to use recycled water -- and that's uncertain.

The Marina Shores project, to be phased in over a 10-to-20-year period, would add about 5,000 residents to Redwood City, which has a current population of 75,000. That's a gain of 6 to 7 percent, with a corresponding gain in city water consumption. Seems to me that Redwood City is placing too big a bet on recycled water.

More water needed

Currently, the only reason Redwood City receives water over its allocation is that some nearby cities use less than their share. What happens when those cities, through population increases, use up their full allocations?

Another area of concern is that the development is in a flight path for the San Carlos Airport, used by private prop and jet airplanes. Besides the concern that a plane might lose power or control and fly into one of Marina Shores, 18- to 21-story high-rises or other buildings, there's the question of the airplanes' noise. Worried about the problem of future Marina Shores, residents suing the airport over the noise, local officials along with the developer have decided that residents in the development will waive their rights in that regard. A so-called "avigation easement" will be in effect that allows the flights and overhead noise.

Fish habitat reduced

Another problem is that the developers propose to fill in most of the former Peninsula Marina -- that is, 10 acres of Redwood Creek, which runs into the San Francisco Bay. Although this doesn't constitute filling in the Bay, it will reduce fish habitat and a fish breeding area. Such species as salmon, sharks and rockfish, and smaller fish such as sardines and anchovy, would be affected. To compensate for filling in this area, the developer, Glenborough-Pauls, has agreed to create an equal or greater new aquatic habitat elsewhere in the Bay Area.

As part of filling in most of the former marina to create a smaller marina, Redwood Creek and nearby Smith Slough could be temporarily polluted by disturbed underwater mud and erosion from surface soils.

These impacts have yet to be approved by state and federal regulatory agencies such as the Corps of Engineers and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The developers have already displaced the former boat users of the Peninsula Marina, but also propose to do the same with the current users of Pete's Harbor. The projects, two new marinas would be open only to the new residents of Marina Shores Village. It's hard to find boat births in the San Francisco Bay Area, especially close to where you live -- and some of the displaced boat owners live on their boats.

A short distance from the Marina Shores development are the three Bair Islands, which were recently incorporated into the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the country's only urban wildlife refuge. Due to citizen activism, the islands were saved from residential development two decades ago, and some of the same citizens are opposing the Marina Shores development. One is Ralph Nobles, who worries that the birds that use the refuge could fly into one of the many 18- to 21-story residential towers to be built. One would also have to worry about water runoff from the development, being carried into the fragile Bair Islands ecosystem. The runoff could include automobile pollutants such as oil, transmission fluid and so on.

On the plus side, of course, Marina Shores would provide nearly 2,000 much-needed housing units to the Peninsula. Of those, 290 would be sold below market value to individuals or families earning between $30,000 and $100,000 per year. Unfortunately, the project isn't located along the CalTrain transportation corridor, but instead is situated in an area that would encourage vehicle use rather than public transit.

Glenborough Realty Trust of San Mateo is a partner in the Glenborough-Pauls group wanting to build Marina Shores. On Glenborough's Web site, the company states: "... Glenborough concentrates on supply-constrained markets with significant barriers to entry. These barriers may include ... restrictive zoning like height restrictions ... They may have a political climate where growth and development is discouraged."

So far, Glenborough-Pauls has jumped over the hurdle of zoning and height restrictions. What remains is to survive the political climate -- such as the Measure Q challenge -- and to jump through the remaining regulatory hoops posed by environmental issues. I give the company credit for its patience and staying power.