Eastshore State Park Planning

From: Jim McGrath (jmcgrath@portoakland.com-DeleteThis.com)
Date: Thu Feb 22 2001 - 13:40:20 PST


X-OldHeader: From jmcgrath@portoakland.com-DeleteThis.com  Thu Feb 22 13:41:05 2001
Return-Path: <jmcgrath@portoakland.com-DeleteThis.com>
Received: from opus.labs.agilent.com (root@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com [130.29.244.179]) by jr.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id NAA07052 for <wind_talk_ls@jr.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Thu, 22 Feb 2001 13:41:04 -0800 (PST)
Received: from msgbas1t.cos.agilent.com (msgbas1t.cos.agilent.com [130.29.152.59]) by opus.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id NAA04684 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Thu, 22 Feb 2001 13:41:04 -0800 (PST)
Received: from portoakland.com (unknown [206.215.106.12]) by msgbas1t.cos.agilent.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 5BF1A4F1 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Thu, 22 Feb 2001 14:41:03 -0700 (MST)
Received: from oak_dom-Message_Server by portoakland.com with Novell_GroupWise; Thu, 22 Feb 2001 13:40:35 -0800
Message-Id: <sa9516d3.076@portoakland.com-DeleteThis.com>
X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.4
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 13:40:20 -0800
From: "Jim McGrath" <jmcgrath@portoakland.com-DeleteThis.com>
To: <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>
Cc: "<Steve Sylvester" <SteveS@Aeron.com-DeleteThis.com>, <Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis.com>, "<Vlad Morosz" <Moroz@me62.lbl.gov-DeleteThis.com>
Subject: Eastshore State Park Planning
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by jr.labs.agilent.com id NAA07052

Several years ago, the State Department of Parks and Recreation completed purchase of land from Catellus that extends from the Bay Bridge toll plaza to Richmond. Battles between Catellus and local governments such as Berkeley over development of the land go back over thirty years, and the acquisition of the land by the State means that the land will be developed for recreation, not as retail or commercial space.

The State Department of Parks and Recreation and the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) have just begun a planning effort to determine what kinds of recreational uses should occur on this shoreline. It began with meetings on February 13 and 20 with property owners, activists that were responsible for the area becoming a park, and recreational users such as windsurfers, kayakers, and sailors.

I represented windsurfing interests and the San Francisco Boardsailing association at the first meeting. Other interests represented were advocates for habitat preservation and enhancement such as the Audubon Society, for off-leash dog walking, and for various recreational users such as dogs. Clearly, the balance of uses between these groups will be a tough planning issue for the sponsors. Provision of adequate parking, and points of access which reflect the physical circumstances and needs for windsurfing, boating, and kayaking will also be issues as some park supporters are opposed to cars within parks. Planning also needs to take into account the changes that can be expected over the next twenty years as many of these shallow areas are rapidly filling up with sediment.

The next step will be a public workshop, expected in March, on "Issues and Opportunities". The Department of Parks and Recreation hopes to adopt the General Plan in late 2002. For more information about the park planning process, check out the EBRPD's web site at http://www.ebparks.org/parks/eastshpk.htm (includes a dandy map), or Paul Kamen's web site at http://www.well.com/user/pk/waterfront/

If you want to get involved, contact the EBRPD at 510-562-PARK, or their consultant, Don Neuwirth, at 415-550-8575.

Jim McGrath



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 07 2002 - 02:10:06 PST