Albany Waterfront Planning

Mark your Calendar for: April 19, 7:30pm to CELEBRATE Voices to Vision, a community vision of maximum open space and minimal development on the Albany Shoreline!

Having recently concluded an almost two-year process, Fern Tiger & Associates has released the Voices to Vision report which will impact the future of the Albany Waterfront.

Please review the report and come to City Council APRIL 19 with your questions and comments.

Ask the City to adopt this Community Vision that supports AT LEAST 75% open space on the shoreline, with a Maximum of 25% development. Remind the City that any future development on the shoreline should be in harmony with the surrounding Eastshore State Park.

You may want to thank those on City Council who decided to reach out to the WHOLE community in a non-partisan way to confirm what residents of Albany really wanted for its waterfront.

Albany Council Chambers, City Hall, 1000 San Pablo Avenue.

Background: The 190-acre Albany waterfront is a distinct feature of the Eastshore State Park and the greater East Bay shoreline, as well as the site of a proposed Bay Trail expansion. The available options for the waterfront are now wide open, given the recent bankruptcy of Magna Entertainment Corporation, owner of the 102-acre Golden Gate Fields racetrack and parking lot, which has long divided the Eastshore State Park into two halves.

We can protect most of the existing site as parkland with room for ball fields, restoration of Cordonices Creek, restoration of beach dunes by the shore, and other active and passive recreation areas.

Currently the race track provides some tax money to the city, schools, and library. A small amount of commercial development is all that is needed to replace that revenue that the track provides. We can protect Albany's school funding with creative but sound public financing methods that protect the funding amounts that the schools (and library) currently receive.

Remember that in depths of the Great Depression in 1934, the people of the East Bay including Albany created the East Bay Regional Park. They had a vision to protect parks and open space and made it work. We can do the same for Albany today.

For more information about Albany Waterfront: http://www.eastshorepark.org or www.voicestovision.com

Please take action on this important issue by emailing the City Council at cityhall@albanyca.org and copy pjones@eastshorepark.org