News
Revised Saltworks Application Pushed Back to Early 2012
by Stacie Chan, Redwood City Patch, November 12, 2011
A proposed development as large as 1,426 acres to house approximately 30,000 people is going to solicit a lot of comments. So many, in fact, that the team of DMB, Inc., will not submit a revised project proposal of the proposed Cargill Saltworks project until January of next year, rather than the end of 2011 as anticipated, according to DMB Vice President John Bruno.
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Because of feedback from residents hoping for solutions to the following issues in Redwood City: flood protection, increasing the variety of housing options, creating parks, and wetland restoration, the developers need to head back to the drawing board to see how one development can simultaneously address these issues.
Yet many residents, including Dan Ponti of the Redwood City Neighbors United, a neighborhood group that opposes the project for several reasons, are skeptical about this delay and said it proposes more questions than answers.
“If they’re listening to us, it’s about 10:1 against the project based on the number of comments,” Ponti said. “Hopefully they’re thinking about the viability of this project as a whole.”
Many residents like Ponti argue that saltponds are not suitable places to build housing because of sea level rise and the increased traffic that comes with building homes. He argued that area is appropriate for a ferry and port facilities, whereas DMB is in the housing construction business.
However, in February 2010, the city analyzed three areas in the proposal: jurisdictional issues, water supply/demand, and transportation. City staff determined that there were no fundamental insurmountable issues. Thus, DMB was allowed to move forward with their application.
But like all residents in Redwood City, Ponti will have to wait to see exactly what changes DMB makes to its application.
“They’ve had quite a bit of time to review the comments so we’ll see what they come up with,” he said.
