10 Safeways

By Ulan McKnight

UC wants to build the equivalent of at least 10 Safeways or more than 6 at their expanded size. Really? Yes... really.

I am in support of preserving Albany's small town flavor.

The original Gill Tract was 104 acres of which all but about 20 acres has been sold off or developed. The last remaining piece currently accommodates ball fields for Albany Little League, business space including some for Albany Unified School District (AUSD), farmland and what is currently unused `open space'. UC has signed a development agreement with the City of Albany for approximately 6.3 acres of this `open space'.

Target is located on about 10 acres of land in the Commercial Mixed Use District (CMX) next to the freeway. Target is about 162,600 square feet on a footprint of 90,000 square feet. Think of it as a little rectangle off in the corner of a larger rectangle. The UC development totals over 290,000 square feet on a footprint of at least 120,000 square feet. Put simply, UC wants to build massive structures on a much larger portion of the land. And they want to do this across the street from a residential neighborhood.

Safeway on Solano is about 24,000 square feet and they want to expand to about 50,000 square feet. UC want to build the equivalent of at least 10 Safeways or more than 6 at their expanded size. Really? Yes... really. I am running for City Council in part because I think this project is just too big. 10 Safeways. Wow.

And just to add to the fun, the main street that feeds this project besides San Pablo is Dartmouth Street. The traffic study conducted found that only one additional car per hour would travel along Dartmouth. The same study found that Albany streets could see 10,000 new car trips per day because of this project. Let's see now... 10,000 new trips but only 24 of those will ever drive along Dartmouth. Sounds pretty incredible to me.