Conceptual Master Plan - Emeryville Center of Community Life

ECCL Presentation
3-31-09
7:00 – 8:15pm
Emery Bay Village
~47 people attended
Comments/Minutes:
Kevin Laven introduced Mark Schatz and Tad Sekino from the Field/Paoli and HKIT
Architect Team.
Mark and Tad presented the power point presentation on the Center of Community Life.
Verbal comments/questions and answers given at the presentation included:
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Parking is a joke, not enough by any means.
Parking will impact us in Emery Bay no matter how its designed.
What is your plan for safety/security? Have you consulted the police?
o We will be doing this in next phase along with school security, but will
note this is a serious concern.
To reiterate safety, there was a murder in my back yard a few years ago.
Response from City/School was he was not a resident and it was a targeted hit,
but it doesn’t matter to me. Neighborhood already unsafe at current level of use.
I’m a natural supporter of this project as family, resident with kids, but I have a
huge concern. It’s a $125 million project, but we don’t have any family housing
in town and no plans for future plans. Family housing and ECCL should be
linked in a package, all for one or neither project.
o Financing of building was explained by Pat O’Keeffe, many sources used
to fund construction with the possibility of a voter approved bond for any
remaining funding.
What about the actual business community, what is there share of paying for this
building?
o As a resident of Emeryville, City services are paid in the 70-75% range by
businesses as well as hotel taxes, licenses, etc. The bond measure mirrors
this percentage, so essentially you as residents can leverage their funding
for a facility serving the community.
I got a phone call asking if I was willing to vote for a bond measure to keep parks,
streets, etc. or if not we won’t be able to clean parks, fix potholes, etc. How can
we think of this big project when the economy is so down and we can’t even
afford what we do now?
o Project was started years ago in a good economy. We all know economies
are cyclical and it will pick up. Instead of waiting until this point, we have
to move forward with plans and getting input now so that when the
economy is good, we’re ready to start construction.