Council Moves Forward with Saltworks Project

Residents of Redwood City and the greater Bay Area turned out by the dozens to give their perspective to the City Council on Monday night regarding the future of the Cargill Saltworks housing development.

Residents from across San Mateo County provided opinions ranging from support to disdain for the project, much like the many other contentious discussions of the development since its proposal.

In all, most of the 25 speakers who made comments to the council supported an extensive and thorough public process, which allowed for a transparent and public dialogue between city staff, elected officials and the community.

An hour of discussion led to council members agreeing to receive updated information from the planning department about the project.

Many of those who addressed the council requested an updated timeline on the project, as progress through the public process has fallen behind what was initially expected.

Councilman John Seybert said the progress has lagged because city staff and elected leadership is doing everything possible to inspect and discuss each development.

The many residents who asked to see an updated timeline may have been dissatisfied with the outcome of Monday's meeting, because no update was provided by Senior Planner Blake Lyon.

Lyon said that the highly anticipated release of the Environmental Impact Report, which is slated to analyze the project's potential effects on surrounding areas, has been postponed due to the developer changing its description of the project.

According to Lyon, the project is on hold until the developer's redefinition is complete. Once that new description is submitted, the city will have a clearer vision of how the project will proceed and what the timeline may be.

Lyons estimated that the second scoping report, which will include a summary of more than 900 pages of public comment, will be released in the summer.

Councilman Jeff Gee advocated for a deliberate pace in progressing through the project, and went so far as calling himself an "info junkie," in regards to his willingness to accept a slower process in exchange for the opportunity to accept more input on the project.

He also said that the city falling behind the projected timeline is "typical" when making decisions on a project of the nature of the Saltworks development.

Longtime Redwood City resident Keith Bautista encouraged the council members to maintain the public process in an effort to allow elected officials, city staff and residents to learn as much about the project as possible before making a decision.

"I commend courage of the council to allow the applicant to have their project go through the normal project review," said Bautista, who later advocated for the development being built.

But opponents of the development also advocated for the project's deliberate pace, despite having hopes that the location of the project would be used for park land and space to access the bay rather than as a housing development.

Redwood City Resident Foster Kinney told council members they should move forward with the public process, and he hopes one day he will be able to vote on whether the development should be built.

"I look forward to voting on the project eventually, but I can't vote until the process of review and amendment is completed," he said. "At that time I will be happy to vote on the final project."

Councilwoman Barbara Pierce said it is likely the council will stay the course as it has currently laid out.

"It is the intent of all of us to make this an open process and ensure that everyone will have chance to share thoughts," she said.

Some speakers commented on released by both the development group and environmental advocate group Save The Bay, which opposes the project. Both sides attempted to characterize the public's opinion for or against the development.

But Seybert said the attempts to sway his vote through political spin were ineffective.

"I never promised to lead Redwood City by following polls," said Seybert.

The council also to the city by DMB Saltworks for the city’s time in researching and analyzing the project for the fiscal year from July to June 2012.