Letter to the Editor: City Responds to Inner Harbor Plan Blog by Docktown Resident

Dear Editorial Staff of the Redwood City Patch,

We are writing to you today to share accurate information in response to a December 9th blog about the Inner Harbor Plan. The blog erroneously asserted that the Downtown Precise Plan cost $250,000 and that the Inner Harbor Project has been underway for only 6 months. The City actually spent approximately $2 million on the Downtown Precise Plan and we have been working on the Inner Harbor Project for several years – since the adoption of the City’s 2010 General Plan update.

The approximate $2 million the City spent on the Downtown Precise Plan includes costs associated with planning and environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). To date, we have spent approximately $800K on the Inner Harbor Project. Significant investment is needed for large scale projects, not only to thoroughly review the environmental impacts, but to also fully realize the most beneficial land use that best serves Redwood City residents.

The Inner Harbor Project is important to our community. The planning for this project got underway with the adoption of Redwood City’s 2010 General Plan which included vision and policy for establishing a vital harbor center as well as land use guidance for marina and mixed use waterfront neighborhoods. It is our goal that careful planning and proper environmental review will help us to realize the potential of the Inner Harbor as a community as it did with Downtown.  Because the Inner Harbor is close to the Bay, the environmental review is even more complex than the Downtown area.  We have ongoing Inner Harbor Task Force meetings to continue to formulate what is the best use of this land, to answer the question, “how can the Inner Harbor serve the greatest community good?”

Unfortunately, not everyone considers what land use will serve the greatest community good. The blog author, Ms. Tania Sole, has a specific land use interest. Ms. Sole resides at Docktown and has a self interest in establishing a floating home community.

To find out more about the Inner Harbor Planning Process go online.  http://www.redwoodcity.org/phed/planning/innerharbor/

The next Inner Harbor Task Force meeting will be 7pm on January 14, 2014 at the Seaport Conference Center, and we hope you and your readers can join us.