Interview (Part 2) with Benicia City Council Member Terry Scott

Questions by Stephen Golub… “Above and beyond the city’s post-Valero budget gap…”

By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, “Benicia and Beyond” column in the Benicia Herald, August 2, 2026

Recently, City Council Member Terry Scott kindly took the time for an interview regarding his background, Benicia’s challenges/opportunities and (having first been elected in 2022) his recently launched campaign for reelection this November. Here are my questions and his thoughts for Part Two of the interview. (Part One was published last Sunday.)

1. Above and beyond the city’s post-Valero budget gap, which we discussed last week, the cessation of its refinery’s operations presents great challenges and opportunities for Benicia. Valero has contracted with the Signature Development Group to plan the redevelopment of the property – presumably as a mixed-use site featuring residential, commercial, and light industrial areas. What directions, in terms of both community input and the eventual results, would you like to see such redevelopment take? 

Above all, this must be a collaboration between the City, community, Signature Development Group, and the landowner, Valero Energy Corp. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape roughly 900 acres, and the right result only comes if all four are genuinely at the table together engaged and active. Won’t work if the community is simply reacting to a plan built without it. That starts with real community committees representing the full breadth of Benicia and by identifying our own needs and wants to maintain our small-town values as this moves forward.

Additionally, input should guide a careful balance: enough housing including a dedicated senior housing component, designed as mixed-use with single-floor units, alongside the affordable housing components and market priced homes.

Retail should serve the neighborhood, including addressing the grocery desert that affects the East 2^nd corridor, without competing with our downtown.

On the industrial side, community and Signature collaboration should focus on jobs and economic development as the top priority, while making sure whatever is built there doesn’t exacerbate the long-term environmental hazards already present and isn’t endangered by those hazards.

And underlying all of it: we still need the EIRs [Environmental Impact Reports], test drills, and a public remediation timeline before any of this can be built.

2. While Valero has decided to cease operations (except temporarily as a fuel storage depot, aka a marine terminal or “tank farm”) and sell the property, the timing and nature of the site’s remediation and redevelopment may hinge on California state government decisions. These include the state influencing how long the site will remain a fuel depot, since full redevelopment could be delayed as long as the depot is in place. What do you feel the state should do? Could Benicia affect this?

The first thing we need is clarity on whether the state has worked out an arrangement with  Valero to maintain the marine terminal and for how long. My guesstimate is that it will take the state roughly two years to stabilize its refined gasoline supply. The state should put a firm mandate in place: within a two-year window, Valero should stop importing refined gasoline through Benicia.

Could Benicia affect this? To a degree. We’re putting pressure on our state senator and assemblymember and met with state agencies to make our views known. But to be clear: Right now, we don’t have a firm answer on how long the state intends to keep this as a marine terminal, and that’s a real disadvantage for us — it’s outside our control.

There is good news. This isn’t lost time. Realistically, it will take Signature a year and a half to two years to put together a development plan that’s plausible, meets community standards, and genuinely incorporates community input. So if the state does mandate the marine terminal  for around two years, we should be arriving at that point right as the planning and permitting groundwork is finally ready — putting us in position to talk about a first shovel in the ground, rather than losing ground.

3. The eventual redevelopment of the Valero property as well as other major projects (including state-mandated new housing in other Benicia locations) could cause considerable population growth and other changes in Benicia. How should we handle the resulting challenges and opportunities?

Valero property will be redeveloped, and that’s necessary. Housing, industrial and technology development is coming. Accept the fact we either change or we die. New growth means more stable revenue through property taxes, jobs, development fees, and then downstream business activity that generate sales tax. It also means real increases in Benicia Unified School District enrollment. And yes, as new housing draws families, there will be huge traffic pressure. We need to study it now particularly around Lake Herman  and Rose roads, and the 780 access point into the industrial park.

History is important to remember here. Each phase of Southampton’s build-out ending with Waters End, was met with the same response: “enough, we don’t want any more.” By around 2000, building came to a screeching halt. The truth is, Benicia absorbed roughly 2,000 homes in Waters End without really changing the makeup of our community; it added residents in an area that’s remained somewhat detached from the rest of town.

That’s the real challenge ahead. It’s not whether we can absorb this growth, since we’ve shown,  we can but whether we can make these new developments genuinely part of the community, not just connected through the school district and the occasional event. We must grow, but grow in a way that ties people in, not off to the side

4. One aspect of your City Council work involves Benicia’s roles and integration in regional planning, projects and policies. Could you address how this might be important for our city?

Much of this comes down to relationships. If the House flips Democratic in November, our Congressman, John Garamendi, is expected to land a major committee seat — putting him in a strong position to help fund Benicia priorities like the Bay Conservation and Development Commission marina cleanup and infrastructure repairs. He’s already been a good listener to Council voices on these issues.

As Solano Country Transit (SolTrans) board chair, I’ve focused on stretching our transit dollars further. Our Benicia Lyft rideshare program has grown from under $40,000 to roughly $300,000 in Solano Transit Authority(STA)/Transportation Development Act paid support over four years, driven by rising demand and helped by Mayor Young and myself as the two advocates at the table.

SolTrans and STA have also delivered real value through Safe Routes to School and Youth Ride-Free programs, which help address rising truancy and curb and sidewalk infrastructure.

More broadly, every regional board I serve on — SolTrans, STA’s committees, and the county’s senior housing plan, is a chance to make sure Benicia’s voice is heard wherever regional decisions get made.

5. As Benicians may or may not realize, serving on the City Council involves a lot of work with very little compensation. Why do you want to run again?

It’s never been about the money — it’s about commitment, and the ability to make a difference. I’m downtown, in the parks, at ballgames, at three or four ribbon-cuttings a month for new business owners excited to be part of this community. I serve food. I deliver food. I was raised in a family that believed giving back is a responsibility and not an option.

There’s also the incalculable part of the job like being in the grocery store, a restaurant, at Lucca, wherever, and having a resident come up with an issue. Working with them and with city staff to solve those problems is real work, too. Council members represent the community, and you can’t do that well without being out there every day, feeling the pulse of the community.

The time commitment is real with some weeks highly time consuming with committees, Council meetings, roundtables and more. Preparation for Council meetings can be several hours a week. SolTrans is another major commitment. But it serves City residents in many ways.

This isn’t a regular job. You either have the passion, or you don’t.

I believe I’ve built the toolbox consisting of four years of experience with my council colleagues, countless hours with residents, business owners and the Chamber of Commerce, the Benicia Industrial Park Association, and have a real understanding of this community’s needs. In short, I want to run again because the job isn’t done.

6. What do you hope Benicia will look like in 20 years?

My hope is that, in the ways that matter most, Benicia won’t have changed all that much. There will obviously be development and retail especially along the East 2^nd Street corridor. But I believe the historic, quirky feel of our downtown and neighborhoods will remain intact. I hope we’re still saving seats on First Street for the Torchlight Parade. What makes Benicia special is our small town feel and values, our welcoming downtown, our engaged community. I don’t think this is going to change. The key is integrating the new with the existing.

Growth is necessary. We must change to work through the demands of the post-Valero era. Yup more housing, retail, more parks, more recreation. Maybe a light rail on East 2^nd Street. Can you say Trader Joe’s? A ferry to SF at the renovated Marina. A destination pier. But, growth here has real limits, by design, because the major parcels will be built out.

More than anything, I hope Benicia becomes the “new Benicia” that its residents want. It should be a reflection of a younger generation taking the torch from those who led this community in the past. I believe it will be a place where people can raise their families, keep those families close, work near where they live, shop near where they work, and feel genuinely welcomed.