Tag Archives: benicia

1000 Friends Protecting Historic Benicia, Arsenal

Sunday, March 12th –  Benicia Arsenal: A Cautionary Tale

Protect Historic Benicia!

Panel Presentation, 2:00 to 3:00 pm:

  • Gary Widman – former: 1st Lt., Benicia Arsenal, 1958-59; Prof of Environ. Law, UC Hastings; General Counsel, Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the President; Gen. Counsel, Calif Dept.of Parks and Recreation & Office of Historic Preservation; Director, Office of Staff Attorneys, US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
  • Gregory Tilles – Professor Emeritus of History, Diablo Valley College
  • Steven Goetz – Benicia Arsenal Park Task Force

The panel will highlight the 162-year life of the Arsenal that shaped Benicia. Our Civil War-era military installation is a unique geographic and architectural gem of the Western United States, and a state and national-registered historic district. Development plans approved by the city pursuant to SB 35 are inconsistent with thirty years of City planning policies and decades of historic preservation efforts by hundreds of citizens to preserve and enhance the Benicia Arsenal.

Our lawsuit filed in November 2022, challenges city approval of two SB 35 multifamily complexes in the Historic Arsenal District listed on the National Register. The district is inclusive of the structures and grounds. The projects approved fail to comply with Secretary of Interior standards for development affecting historic structures and place. We are certain that court review will show wrecking a unique, historic district is not legal or right. Seeing and understanding the historical and cultural resources are critical for the court to understand why SB35 is wrongly used in this case and a flawed piece of legislation.

Tours – Docent-led

  • Historic Jefferson Street walks – 3:15 and 4:00 pm
  • Home tours: two non-commissioned officer homes – 3:15 to 4:30 pm

Docent-led tours of the Clocktower Fortress, the adjacent Officers’ Row, and historic homes on Jefferson Street will give you a window into Benicia’s history and life at a U.S. Army base more than 150 years ago. Gathering for recreation and spectacular views of the Carquinez Strait from Jefferson Ridge was part of the Army’s original design. We are called to protect this special place.

Related attractions at the Arsenal:

Benicia Historical Museum is open 1:00 to 4:00 pm
($3 for adults, $2 for children, free for active military with identification)
Arts Benicia – Exhibits at the Commanding Officer’s Quarters are open until 5:00 pm

Join the campaign!

…to find a way to “Preserve – Not Destroy” the Benicia Arsenal…
Stay Informed and Donate – (501)©(3)  1000FriendsPHB.org

See earlier on BenIndy:

1000 Friends Protecting Historic Benicia, Arsenal

Community Forum: the Benicia Arsenal, A Cautionary Tale

Protect Historic Benicia!

WHO:  1000 Friends Protecting Historic Benicia – non-profit 501(c)(3)

 WHAT:   Community Forum – Benicia Arsenal – Panel presentation and tours illustrating superior alternatives to the approved streamline approved SB 35  housing projects for 19 buildings, 138 condominium units that will erase the landscape and hide the existing historic 19th-century structures.  Intact for over 150 years, the historic district overlooking the Carquinez Straits will become  just a footnote in Benicia’s history.

When:  March 12, 2PM

Where:  Clocktower – 1189 Washington Street, Historic Arsenal, Benicia

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Benicia Arsenal: A Cautionary Tale – Sunday, March 12, at 2:00 pm Clocktower Fortress, 1189 Washington Street, Benicia Arsenal.  Free event, ample parking

Panel Presentation, 2:00 to 3:00 pm:

  • Gary Widman – former: 1st Lt., Benicia Arsenal, 1958-59; Prof of Environ. Law, UC Hastings;  General Counsel, Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the President; Gen. Counsel, Calif Dept. of Parks and Recreation & Office of Historic Preservation;  Director, Office of Staff Attorneys, US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
  • Gregory Tilles – Professor Emeritus of History, Diablo Valley College
  • Steven Goetz – Benicia Arsenal Park Task Force
  • Blake Roberts, Moderator – D., Program Manager of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area

The panel will highlight the 162-year life of the Arsenal that shaped Benicia.  Our Civil War-era military installation is a unique geographic and architectural gem of the Western United States, and a state and national-registered historic district. Panelists will review current environmental challenges and threats, including approved high-density development plans for the heart of the historic district.  Developing and preserving does not have to be in conflict. Better alternatives will be presented.

Tours – Docent-led

  • Historic Jefferson Street walks – 3:15 and 4:00 pm
  • Home tours: two non-commissioned officer homes – 3:15 to 4:30 pm

After the panel, docent-led tours of the Clocktower Fortress, the adjacent Officers’ Row, and historic homes on Jefferson Street will give you a window into Benicia’s history and life at a U.S. Army base more than 150 years ago. Gathering for recreation and spectacular views of the Carquinez Strait from Jefferson Ridge was part of the Army’s original design.  We are called to this campaign to preserve and enhance the Benicia Arsenal.

Related attractions at the Arsenal:

  • Benicia Historical Museum is open 1:00 to 4:00 pm ($3 for adults, $2 for children, free for active military with identification)
    Arts Benicia – Exhibits at the Commanding Officer’s Quarters are open until 5:00 pm
  • Join the campaign to find a way to “Develop – Not Destroy” the Benicia

Stay Informed and Donate (501)©(3):  www.1000FriendsPHB.org

See earlier on BenIndy:

Environmentally Superior Alternative, Housing

Open Letter to the Benicia City Council: ‘It didn’t have to be this way’

[Editor – Excellent analysis and critique of Council’s ‘Housing Element’ decision on January 24.  For additional background, see earlier stories on BenIndy below.  – R.S.]

Historic Benicia Arsenal Advocates address City Council on Housing Element decision

January 30, 2023

Benicia City Council Benicia City Hall
250 East L Street
Benicia, CA 94510
RE: 2023-2031 Housing Element – January 31 Agenda Item 10.A

Dear Mayor Young and Council Members:

At the January 24 meeting, despite testimony from many community members advocating for a better alternative, the City Council approved a Housing Element that threatens Benicia’s precious historic resources, puts future residents directly in the path of environmental hazards, and fails to further fair housing goals. [Agenda, Minutes, Video]

(Click image to see the 1999 General Plan)

It didn’t have to be this way. Throughout the 12-month Housing Element update process, concerned community members raised these issues and pointed to better alternatives. And unlike many cities, Benicia had a large number of viable and desirable housing sites to choose from. The Council rejected many suitable sites, often at the request of a handful of neighbors, and yet chose not to consider the larger issues of historic preservation, fair housing, and environmental hazards that civic-minded community members have raised throughout the process. The comments from these community members represented longstanding City policies and values enshrined in the Benicia General Plan.

Click image to view the Housing Element Draft EIR (532-pages, slow download)

At the January 24 Council meeting, a near-capacity crowd asked the Council to approve the Environmentally Superior Alternative as identified in the Housing Element Environmental Impact Report (EIR). As stated on page 6-23 of the EIR, the Environmentally Superior Alternative would meet all the project’s objectives. This alternative would have reduced impacts on historic resources in the Arsenal and downtown and helped address hazards and fair housing concerns while still meeting the City’s housing needs and State of California requirements.

The rationale for the Council’s decision was apparently that, based on advice from the City’s consultants and staff, the Environmentally Superior Alternative might not actually be feasible. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that alternatives evaluated in EIRs be feasible. If the Environmentally Superior Alternative was not feasible, the Housing Element EIR is inadequate and should not have been certified.

The staff and consultants also claimed that the Council really had no choice but to approve the Housing Element as currently drafted, due to the looming January 31 deadline for Housing Element adoption, the cost of making changes, and the fact that they had not evaluated the Environmentally Superior Alternative for fair housing compliance. If that were the case, it would appear that the City designed the process and schedule to prevent meaningful consideration of EIR alternatives, violating the public’s trust as well as the requirements and intent of CEQA.
Let’s be clear: The Council had a choice. At the January 24 meeting and throughout the process, the Council had better options but chose not to act on them out of expediency or fear of State repercussions. The Council had an opportunity to present a vision for the future of Benicia and failed to meet the challenge.

Sincerely,

Benicia Arsenal Park Task Force,
Benicia Arsenal Defense, and
1000 Friends Protecting Historic Benicia

cc. City Clerk, Community Development Director,  Benicia Herald, Benicia Independent, Vallejo Times-Herald, Vallejo Sun

See earlier on BenIndy:

Benicia, Environmentally Superior Alternative, Housing

Housing Update should be adopted with “Environmentally Superior Alternative”

[BenIndy Editor: note that the Environmentally Superior Alternative is NOT easy to find in Council’s January 24 packet. Staff analysis of it can be located on numbered pages 93-95 (PDF pages  98-100) in Attachment 1 – Resolution – Statement of Overriding Considerations – Certifying the EIR.  The complete DRAFT EIR is not provided in the January 24 agenda. It has a more detailed description on pages 6-53 to 6-25 (PDF pages 519-521.   – R.S.]

Protecting Historic Benicia

Elizabeth Patterson, Benicia Mayor 2007-2020

This Tuesday (Jan. 24) at 6 p.m. the Benicia City Council will consider adopting the Environmental Impact Report for the mandated update of the Housing Element of the General Plan. You may not realize what this means.

Let me explain.

In the City of Benicia the need for housing is being addressed substantively, urgently and comprehensively pursuant to state law. But it need not be an either-or-choice between protecting historic districts, places and needed housing. In fact, proposed overlay zoning on historic districts and places is deemed an environmentally cultural resource significant impact for the Housing Element.

The proposed overlay zoning is a significant impact on the historic districts listed on the National Register, the highest ranking in the United States.

The Housing Element Update Environmental Impact Report provides a remedy which is to avoid the impacts to cultural resources by adopting the Environmentally Superior Alternative.

2023-2031 Benicia Housing Element – LINK: Environmentally Superior Alternative Analysis

The Environmentally Superior Alternative avoids impacts not just to historic districts and places (city cemetery) but also reduces impacts to aesthetic resources, energy, geology and soils, greenhouse gas emissions, hazards and hazardous material, hydrology and water quality, public services, population and housing, and transportation when compared to the proposed project (i.e. Housing Element).

There are substantial reasons to adopt the Environmentally Superior Alternative so why wouldn’t the staff and Planning Commission recommend that alternative to the council?

One reason might be because based on recommendations from the Association of Bay Area Governments to meet the State Housing Community and Development guidelines is to have a 15% “buffer” number of rezoned parcels to meet the mandated housing units of 750. It is calculated that removing all the historic districts, the city cemetery and Jefferson Ridge and Park Road projects would still provide 50% percent over the mandate.

Another reason might be that applying the zoning overlay for multifamily/mixed use on Southampton neighborhoods would be a harder local political fight than targeting the historic districts and places.

Another reason might be that by adopting the maximum number well beyond the mandates and buffer, that future development and land uses are cast now beyond the reach of future councils. Once the sites are identified in the housing element this time they are “forever” sites going forward and subject to less public review.

But reasons to adopt the Environmentally Superior Alternative go beyond avoiding significant impacts to historic districts and places and reducing environmental impacts listed including air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. It sends a signal that when the Seeno or so-called Eastern Gateway project is assessed we could count on the council adopting the environmentally superior alternative rather than a Seeno-preferred project.

Or what about a Valero Refinery project? Can we count on the council adopting an environmentally superior alternative?

If not now, when?

Benicia has experience with public participation for the needed future community planning for the proposed infill development. Indeed, the General Plan Oversight Committee in the late 1990s used this approach to find common ground between those who opposed and advocated for affordable housing. The accord reached was to include the neighborhood in the process. Dialogue is better than majority rule because it fosters solution-based conversations and in the end better planning (e.g. East 5th Street process).

More compact infill development in the Housing Element’s Environmentally Superior Alternative reduces the impacts to the climate by reducing vehicle miles traveled because the development is within the city’s core. This is consistent with Benicia’s General Plan, which proudly is based on sustainable development.

We can thoughtfully plan our community based on the Environmentally Superior Alternative — instead of sliding into the “development by right” that enables developers to potentially avoid needed environmental assessment for some areas.

Where we build and what we build is a climate issue.

— Elizabeth Patterson/Benicia Mayor (2007-2020)

For safe and healthy communities…