Community group endorses "clustered villages" land-use plan for Concord Naval Weapons Station
CONCORD — A 19-person residents' group has endorsed a plan for the Concord Naval Weapons Station that boasts 12,300 housing units and a population of 28,880, with 65 percent of the land designated as open space and parks.
The Community Advisory Committee met 36 times in two years, and Tuesday's decision was the group's final vote on what should go on the former military base's 5,028 inland acres. The Concord City Council, however, will get the final say.
The committee decided to approve the "clustered villages" plan as the endorsed, preferred alternative. It also decided to forward a second plan calling for more concentrated development, fewer parks and more open space than the clustered villages approach — just in case the City Council wants to look at that one, too.
The vote was 10-7 in favor of the proposals, with two committee members absent.
A neighborhood group is crying foul, though, arguing there isn't enough of a green buffer or linear park planned between existing neighborhoods and the new proposed development in the clustered villages plan. Most of the development concentrates around the North Concord BART station along the northwest tip of the property.
"This alternative was obviously being pushed through, railroaded through," said Kathy Gleason of the Concord Naval Weapons Station Neighborhood Alliance. "We're going to go into the neighborhoods to explain to people what was chosen, and that now is the time Advertisementto speak up."
In the past, environmental groups have liked the framework of the proposed development, including the locations of where houses and commercial complexes will be concentrated, and where the parks and open space will physically sit. But they say there are too many homes, which will lead to too many people and too much traffic.
Concord Reuse Project Director Mike Wright says the plans' housing numbers are higher now in mid-September, the last time the committee discussed the plans.
"We tweaked the plans so we could have more park land and buffer area, but because of that, we had to concentrate the development in the villages a little more than we had. And parks cost money to build. So if we add more parks, we have to have a way (through development) to pay for that."
Proposed housing units in the clustered villages plan went from 11,950 two weeks ago to 12,300, and a buffer between old and new neighborhoods is between 175 feet and 350 feet wide.
"We tried to be as responsive as possible, but you can't make everyone happy," he said.
Gleason worries about the traffic impacts on the rest of the city, and pointed to a controversy in 2006 in which the City Council attempted to plan housing units on the weapons station — around 13,000 units — but backtracked when the community objected.
She also said she was surprised the advisory committee took a vote Tuesday, rather than waiting until another scheduled meeting next week.
Dan Helix, chairman of the citizen committee, said that the committee had more than enough meetings, plus workshops, and engaged in the "most transparent public process" he'd ever been a part of.
"I don't think any of this was much of a surprise," Helix said. "We talked, we announced that the decision might be made, and everyone understood. The public was involved every step of the way."
The City Council is expected to discuss these plans at its regular Nov. 17 meeting.
To see a map of the two alternatives, go to www.concordreuseproject.org.
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