HOLD DEVELOPERS TO HIGHEST STANDARDS

By Dave Custodio

Th Bart station stimulated the county to establish a redevelopment zone here in Bay Point. Much of Bay Point is included in the zone. The BART connects us with the world. It is now possible to step on the BART in Bay Point and Step off the bus in Grand Central Station 8 hours later, all on mass transport. Development in this zone should reflect our aspiration that this district enforces state-of-the-art development standards.

We are destined to continue into the future. Though it is possible we are soon to enter the end of the world, and "rapture" we should "cover our bet" and plan for the future, in case we are wrong or the rapture is late.

I suggest that "Progress" is not synonomous with development. I suggest that "Progress" is the manifestation of public policy to increase happiness. If we proceed with the idea that development is progress, we will soon run out of land and "progress" will end, that is "progress" is not sustainable. If we proceed with the second idea, that "progress" is the implementation of public policy to increase happiness, we will always have room to grow.

In the realm of development of the first kind, Bay Point has relaxed its open space standards and occupancy densities for recent projects. One of them, currently making its way through county staff, is an industrial zone called "Bay Harbor Commerce Center". It is owned by an LLC that is owned by Bigge Crane. In fact, Bigge Crane is the only tenanrt so far. Even thouhg the 45 acre site contains 3 wetlands and 2 creeks, the county did not require an Environmental Impact Report. It settled for a "Mitigated Negative Declaration", that is, a statement that says, "Don't worry, this project won't impact the environment."

We should not refer to allowing shortcutting of standards to masquerade as "progress". High standards and full procedural review will result in high quality development. It is the nature of corporate developers to get the greatest bang for the buck, regardless of what they say. (Words don't count as "bucks", that is, talk is cheap).

The issue of JOBS is paramount here. Some might say "Jobs is happiness", or rather "Money is happiness" and jobs is money. To some degreee a share that view. The question should be asked in a different way:
Will development, and the jobs that it produces, tend to toward quality if the develoers are allowed to proceed along the cheapest route? Or will insistance upon high stasndards and full procedures tend to increase the quality of the development, decrease the intensity of the development, increase the initial cost of locating a building or business there and in the end prodece jobs of sufficiebnnt quality to justify the expense of the investment?

I suggest that the second course will in the end produce more happiness, or at least help mitiagate the loss of open space.