700-800 K Street Action Alert July 2010

SOCA Action Alert: This item 700-800 K Street will be heard at Council on Tuesday, July 13th at 6:00 PM. It is item 32 on the agenda but items 1-30 are consent items and should go very quickly. If you cannot attend see below for the link to the Council’s e-comment page so you can provide feedback electronically.

At the June 2010 SOCA Board meeting, City staff presented the ’selection committees’ recommendations for the the 700 and 800 K Street proposals. The Selection Committee was created by the city staff and was composed of staff and external experts. They recommended two project teams, D & S Development, Inc., and CFY Development, Inc. for the the 700 block and the group 700-800 K Street, LLC, led by developer David Taylor and Z Gallerie owner Joe Zeiden — for the 800 block. The Taylor proposal does suggest the Bel Vue will be retained and restored. The Bel-Vue is a listed city Landmark and was designed by George Sellon, the first State Architect and designer of the Cal-Western Insurance Building now known as the Citizen Hotel.

On the 700 block, D&S Development wants to reduce the size of 160-foot-deep retail spaces and use the 66-foot-deep leftover space to create alley-fronting housing and a garage. Both proposals include a mix of housing in varying price ranges as well as street fronting retail spaces.

The Sacramento Old City Association supports the recommendations of the selection committee and will remain actively engaged as these proposals move forward to ensure existing landmarks are not demolished in this process.

In early July, 2010 SOCA learned that the Council Ad-hoc committee is recommending the full Council REJECT the selection committee suggestions and award an Exclusive Right to Negotiate to Rubicon Partners. The Rubicon “Authenti-City” plan as the concept drawing depicts today would destroy many of the historic structures on the 700 & 800 blocks of K Street.

This item will be heard at the City Council Meeting on Tuesday, July 13th at 6:00 PM. This is item 32 on the Agenda. Items 1-30 are on consent and should go very quickly. Therefore this item could be heard as early as 6:15 to 6:30 PM. Members of the SOCA Board will be there and we also strongly encourage our members to come and support the selection committee recommendations for the following reasons:

Dear Mayor Johnson: RE K Street Development
The Sacramento Old City Association supports the recommendation of the Selection Committee to award the development of the 700 block of K Street to the D& S proposal and the 8th Street site to the David Taylor proposal.  
Our reasons:
•  Having separate  developers for the two sites will increase the possibility of both sites being successfully completed.  Less risk is involved.
•  The D & S proposal for the 700 block saves all the buildings on the street not just the façades.  
•  The David Taylor proposal restores the historic Bel Vue Apartments on 8th Street.
•  D & S has local businesses lined up as tenants for the 700 block.
•  Mixed income housing will be available on the alley and over the shops on K Street in the 700 block.
•  Mixed income housing will be developed in the 800 block.  The City needs more housing in the downtown area that people who work downtown can afford.  SOCA believes that proposals with high end condos can come after the workers are housed.
•  the projects chosen by the Selection Committee require less subsidy than the others.
We trust that the you and the City Council will consider position when deciding which of the four proposals to choose.
Sincerely,

If you cannot attend, you can use the e-comment feature on the city council’s website:

link to Council Agenda main page : http://sacramento.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=8

look for link to the e-comment; again it’s item 32 on the July 13th Agenda

Staff Report on 700 & 800 K Project here: July 13th Staff Report  it’s large file and might take a little while to download/ view. You can also accesss it on the council agenda web page.

Thank you for your continued support.

Highway Traffic Increases Into Midtown Stopped

The following press release from ECOS was released on January 16th, 2009.  Several SOCA and Preservation Roundtable members participated in NAST.

ECOS (Environmental Council of Sacramento) and NAST (Neighbors Advocating Sustainable Transportation) have reached a settlement agreement with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) resolving the lawsuit filed over Caltrans’ planned expansion of HOV lanes on Highway 50 from Sunrise Boulevard to Watt Avenue.

In light of the ongoing state budget negotiations and the importance of directing stimulus spending at important infrastructure upgrades, ECOS, NAST and Caltrans have agreed on a plan that will protect our communities and the environment while creating thousands of new construction jobs for our region.  The agreement:

  • clears the way for Caltrans to start construction this year on new HOV lanes on Highway 50 from Sunrise Boulevard to Watt Avenue;
  • commits Caltrans to funding $3.9 million in improvements on Regional Transit’s Gold Line that will allow for 15-minute frequency light rail service from Hazel light rail station to downtown Sacramento and additional peak period express trains from Folsom to downtown Sacramento;
  • commits Caltrans to funding 3 years ($3.6 million) of Regional Transit’s net operating costs to run 15-minute frequency service to downtown Folsom;
  • commits Caltrans to finding an additional $820,000 to fund construction of a bicycle pedestrian crossing over Highway 59 near Mather Field Road;
  • commits Caltrans to enter into discussions with affected communities regarding the allocation of community enhancement funds to maximize access to and use of the Gold Line. (more…)

2030 General Plan & Historic Preservation

The City of Sacramento is announcing that there will be an environmental review of its proposed new general plan. People interested in historic preservation will want to participate in this review which begins today, July 9, 2007 with the Notice of Preparation (NOP). The following is from Roberta Deering in the Preservation Office:

“The purpose of the NOP is to notify responsible agencies, interested stakeholders, and other members of the public that a lead agency intends to prepare an EIR for a proposed project. Public comments on the NOP are received for a 30-day review period which will begin in Monday, July 9, 2007.

Note also that a public scoping meeting on the General Plan EIR will be held at the Planning Commission meeting scheduled for Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 5:30 PM. The location of the meeting will be Historic City
Hall, 2nd Floor hearing room, 915 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. Members of the public are welcome to attend and provide comments.

If you have any questions, please call the General Plan hotline at (916) 808-7500 or send an email to generalplan@cityofsacramento.org.”

SOCA will be carefully following this issue. There is the possibility for urban density to encroach into Historic Districts.