Here is the SOCA letter to the Mayor and Council stating our position on the development of the West end of K Street.  This is for the Council meeting Tuesday, July 13 at 6:00 p.m. Please see the next post below for Action Alert Info and background and how you can help and have your voices heard.  The Council Ad-hoc Committee REJECTED the selection committee recommendations that both SOCA and the Downtown Sacramento Partnership support.

July 9, 2010

Mayor Kevin JohnsonNew City Hall

915 I Street

Sacramento, CA 95814

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.

At our last board meeting Leslie Friitzsche presented information  describing all four responses to the City’s RFQ.  At the conclusion of her presentation and our deliberations, the board voted unanimously to support the Selection Committee recommendation. 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 you and the City Council will consider our position when deciding which of the four proposals to choose.

Sincerely,

Linda Whitney

President

cc:  Council Members.

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:

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.

Join fellow city-lovers on May 1st at 10:00 a.m. for Sacramento’s first Jane’s Walks—held in honor of Jane Jacobs: writer, urbanist, neighborhood activist, and author of the seminal book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” Jane’s Walks began in Toronto in 2007 and have spread across the globe.
This year Sacramento joins the party in a big way with walks held in K Street Mall, Oak Park, Alkali Flat, and Winn Park. Each walk of approximately two hours will look at features in the neighborhood that make it livable: sidewalks, businesses, restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, variety of housing types, greenery and more. All are welcome and invited. Walks will be accessible for wheelchair users. Attendance is free.
Jane Jacobs documented the way city vitality is promoted through diversity of residents, buildings, land uses, and transportation modes. Jacobs believed strongly that local residents understand best the details of their neighborhoods and she spent her life encouraging locals to have a voice in the planning of their cities. “We are excited to bring Jane’s Walks to Sacramento and anticipate many more such walks throughout the region in years to come,” said Kay Knepprath of the Jane Jacobs Reading Group.
Walks are being coordinated by the Jane Jacobs Reading Group with co-sponsorship by the Sacramento Old City Association and WALKSacramento. Information is available at http://janeswalkusa.wordpress.com/ and www.walksacramento.org.
For additional information, contact: Kay Knepprath at 457-3793 or Anne Geraghty at 446-9255.

Sacramento Old City Association representatives spoke at City Council on August 25th. The Council moved the staff recommendation to give the development team working on this ambitious hotel plan for the 800 block of K Street, another 90 days to secure over $91 million in funding.  Concurrently, staff are working on a request for qualifications to seek development proposals when the 90 days are up if the current development team can not secure needed funding. Both Councilmember Tretheway and Cohn emphasized the importance of retaining the Bel-Vue as a viable building not just a hollow facade, and directed staff to work with the development team to seek ways to rehab and reuse the Bel-Vue, a listed city landmark.  If the current development team is able to secure funding, the community will seek a redo of the current plan that incorporates the rehabilitation of the landmark. If a new development proposal is sought, we will advocate that any and all plans that come forward must include the rehab and reuse of the Bel-Vue.  Staff will return to Council in late September or early October to discuss the implications of ths project on how transit occupancy taxes are distributed among various city programs as the existing ordinance would need to be altered to accommodate this project because it asks for many exceptions to current city rules. This saga is far from over, and we will do our best to keep you informed, stay tuned.