Sign the Petition for our friends in Concord – Reverse the Seeno decision!

Effort launched to remove Seeno Companies’ grip on major Concord housing development plan

The Concord City Council will negotiate exclusively with the Seeno companies to develop the long-anticipated Naval Weapons Station project. (Dan Rosenstrauch/Staff Archives)

SiliconValley.com, by Shomik Mukherjee, September 29, 2021


In response to the Concord City Council’s decision last month to negotiate exclusively with the controversial Seeno Companies and its affiliated developers to oversee one of the East Bay’s biggest housing projects in recent history, Seeno’s longtime foes are launching a two-pronged effort to sway the council to reconsider.

Notorious for playing hardball with local governments and environmental groups, family-run real estate developer Seeno and its associated companies won the council’s approval for a shot at possibly becoming the master developer of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station. Discovery Builders, which was established by a Seeno family member, is listed as the group’s lead company.

The grassroots Concord Communities Alliance is circulating an online petition that so far has collected 1,300 signatures urging the council to revisit its 3-2 vote. Meanwhile, a member of the Democratic Party of Contra Costa County has written a resolution formally opposing the council’s decision and asked the party to throw its political weight behind a formal protest.

But the opposition will have to move swiftly if it’s going to sink the arrangement. Concord Economic Development Director Guy Bjerke said Tuesday his goal is to finish negotiations by late October. After that, the council could make Discovery Builders the project’s official master developer.

The stakes are high. The master developer would implement the city’s vision for 13,000 new homes and millions of square feet of office and commercial space — in essence, a new community — on the former naval weapons site.

Discovery Builders had previously sued the Navy to stop the project when it was in the hands of another developer.

Now the company, headquartered in Concord near the site of the proposed development, is poised to be in the driver’s seat to oversee that very project.

The resolution by Democratic Party secretary Kenji Yamada blasts Seeno for a “history of bad faith and unethical behavior,” suggesting the company’s negotiations with the city will either end in turmoil or lead to “poor-quality homes and environmental destruction.”

The resolution is currently being reviewed by the party’s “issues” subcommittees and could appear before its central committee for consideration in October. Yamada, who also is a member of the party’s executive committee, says he wrote the resolution as an individual.

“I was surprised that they were selected, not so much because of their atrocious record of ethical violations, but because the name of Seeno is so notorious among residents and constituents of the City Council that I didn’t think the council would dare to select them,” said Yamada, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2018.

The Concord City Council discusses its choice for a new master developer of the Concord Naval Weapons Station project during a meeting on Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021. (Screenshot)

The development partners, which include Lewis Planned Communities and California Capital Investment Group as well as Seeno and Discovery, released a statement saying they were “extremely honored and proud” to be selected for the project.

“We look forward to working with the City of Concord and the Concord community to design and develop a first class project that the entire region can all be proud of,” Louis Parsons of Discovery Builders said in an emailed statement.

Former council member Colleen Coll said Seeno has a reputation of running roughshod over any obstacles to its desired developments.

“They don’t disclose their financials, the rules don’t matter to them — none,” said Coll, who served on the council in the 1980s.

Though vilified by environmental groups and others, Discovery and Seeno also have their backers, including labor unions. Well before the council vote, they had secured a project labor agreement with the building and trades union, which guarantees that construction jobs will go to union members. The site’s previous master developer walked away from the project after refusing to sign such an agreement.

The three council members who voted to award the exclusive negotiating agreement last month to the Discovery/Seeno team dismiss the criticisms leveled at Seeno.

“The art of diplomacy and negotiations seems to have a very slow learning curve in a state where 20% of the country’s lawyers live,” Councilman Edi Birsan said in an email addressing Seeno’s long history of litigation.

Seeno sued the Navy in 2018 to stop it from transferring the weapons site to Concord, claiming the influx of new homes would result in traffic gridlock. Last year, Discovery Builders sued the East Bay Regional Park District to prevent it from acquiring adjacent Navy-owned land for the establishment of new parkland.

Discovery Builders claimed the park district did not do a “sufficient environmental review” of the planned park’s impacts on the surrounding environment.

But East Bay environmental groups say Seeno’s track record shows it’s no friend of the environment.

Save Mount Diablo, which advocates for conservation of open space and natural lands, lists on its website a timeline of news reports detailing past criticisms of Seeno.

“There are clear ethical and environmental violations,” said Zoe Siegel of San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance.

It’s unclear what impact the petition or the party resolution would have on the council’s decision-making.

Kathy Gleason, a Concord resident since 1974 and a fierce opponent of Seeno’s selection, said she doubts the opposition will succeed in changing the council’s mind but she hopes it’ll at least serve as notice.

“It seems, the way we exist today, that if the public speaks up loud enough and long enough, maybe we’ll get change,” Gleason said.

Case numbers back up in Solano County, Benicia sees a surprising 17 new cases


By Roger Straw, Friday, October 1, 2021

Friday, October 1: Solano County reports 270 new infections, including a recent high of 17 new cases in Benicia

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: no new COVID-related deaths reported todayTotal Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic remains at 297.  The County reported 9 new deaths last week and 7 this week, a total of 27 in September:

CASES: The County reported  200 new COVID cases in the last 2 days, 100 per day.  Last week’s average was 152 per day, and on Wednesday the County reported 135 per day, so Monday’s standout report of only 16 per day over the weekend was surely incomplete or erroneous.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen 518 new cases, up from 460 on Wednesday and firmly back into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate after only 1 Solano dashboard report placing the County below that level.

(CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County population of 449,432, the CDC would rate us in “SUBSTANTIAL” transmission with 225 cases over the last 7 days.  Double that, or 450 cases in the last 7 days would rank us in “HIGH” transmission.  Reference: CDC’s “Level of SARS-CoV-2 Community Transmission”.]

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 545 ACTIVE cases is up slightly over Wednesday’s 537, and far above our summer rates.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 7.8% today, up from Wednesday’s 7.2%.  COMPARE: today’s California rate is 2.0% and today’s U.S. rate is 6.6%[Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 54 to 46 persons, but still in the range we saw during the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability is down today, from 22% to only 18%, in the yellow danger zone.  Again, we are in the worrisome range we saw during the winter surge.

Ventilator Availability went up slightly today from 53% to 57%, still in the range of last February’s winter surge.

TOTAL hospitalizations: Solano County’s TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of hospitalizations by Age Group and by Race/Ethnicity.  The County adjusted its Hospitalizations charts today, adding 29 previously unreported hospitalizations.  See below.  The differing race/ethnicity numbers indicate a number of persons whose race/ethnicity was not given or recorded.  All percentages remain unchanged except for a 1% drop in the percentage of persons age 50-64.

FACE MASKS… Required for all in Benicia and Vallejo

Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate that went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  Benicia was joined by Vallejo on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

I know this is getting to be old news, but it seems so important to me… SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  The Board’s agenda called for discussion of an indoors mask mandate for all and a vaccination mandate for county workers.  The Board voted 4-1 to require county-run facilities in Vallejo and Benicia to abide by local mandates.  But the Board voted down the vaccination mandate 3-2, and failed to even consider the agendized question of a county-wide mask mandate.  The Solano Board of Supervisors joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cases by City on Friday, October 1:
  • Benicia added 17(!) new cases today, a total of 1,439 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 27 new cases over the last 7 days, very nearly back in the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission (defined as 28 or more cases, based on Benicia population).  17 new cases today represents a one-day return to August numbers.  Will this increase in cases continue?  If so, we may have an October COVID outbreak in Benicia.  [Note that Solano County is at a level of HIGH transmission, and Solano’s 6 other cities are likely also individually experiencing high or substantial transmission.]
  • Dixon added 8 new cases today, total of 2,473 cases.
  • Fairfield added 54 new cases today, total of 11,938 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 1 new case today, total of 569 cases.
  • Suisun City added 14 new cases today, total of 3,156 cases.
  • Vacaville added 42 new cases today, a total of 11,689 cases.
  • Vallejo added 62 new cases today, a total of 13,050 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 2 new cases today, a total of 139 cases (population figures not available).

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