Plans for development of a new 2,300-acre community, including 13,000 residences plus offices, businesses and a college campus on the former Concord Naval Weapons Station — which would be one of the largest construction projects in Northern California history — are on hold until 6:30 p.m. tonight.
After 6-1/2 hours on Tuesday, including three hours of public testimony from more than 80 speakers, the Concord City Council opted to hold over a labor agreement decision until Wednesday night, given the late hour and the long day.
“There is no good decision-making done at 12:45 a.m.,” said Councilwoman Laura Hoffmeister. The council voted 3-2 to continue the meeting to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.
Tuesday’s action came in light of an impasse between the Contra Costa County Building and Construction Trades Council, a consortium of labor unions, and Lennar Concord, LLC, the chosen lead developer of the weapons
station remake – formally known as the Concord Community Reuse Project – over construction labor agreements.
The crux of the impasse is whether Lennar can afford to use as many labor union workers as county labor leaders propose. Lennar officials said that the difference between Lennar’s overall labor offer and the Building Trades Council’s overall request is about $546 million, said Guy Bjerke, Concord’s reuse project director.
Hundreds of area union members and their supporters crowded not only in the council chambers and an overflow room, but the courtyard outside council chambers at City Hall. Many held up “PLA” placards, and sporadically chanted “P-L-A! P-L-A!”
One of those there was Matt Burt, a member of Teamsters Local 315 based in Martinez.
“We’re trying to make sure we get our union wages and keep things to a high standard,” said Burt, a Pleasant Hill resident. “We want to keep everything competitive.”
A key fear among union supporters like Burt is, as one commenter stated, was that Lennar would “bring in outside workers from the (San Joaquin) valley and from Arizona and pay substandard wages.”
Building Trades Council attorney Dan Cardozo said Tuesday night that the unions have been asking since summer for the basic labor cost and estimated revenue numbers Lennar has been using to reach its conclusions. He
asked why Lennar would want to withhold such numbers.
Also among items addressed in the labor agreements are local hiring requirements and vocational training and incentive programs for military veterans, as proposed by the Building Trades Council.
In late 2019, after the Building Trades Council indicated no progress was being made with Lennar on the labor agreements, former mayor and current Councilman Edi Birsan created an ad hoc committee to encourage the
two parties to come together. The two sides have met nine times since June 2018, the last two times with the ad hoc committee present, all to no avail.
Greg Feere, the now-retired former CEO of the Building Trades Council, said Tuesday that when he last spoke with Lennar Regional Vice President Kofi Bonner about the Concord project in 2016, the labor agreement was set to be 100 percent union. “It was going to be an all-trades agreement, period,” Feere said. When Birsan asked Feere whether conditions had changed since then, Feere said no.
“For the life of me, I don’t know why we’re here today,” Feere said.
Bonner remembered things differently Tuesday. “At all times, I was clear we would have to understand the economics of the project.”
Most of the 80 public commenters urged the council to keep the project going, with a labor agreement in place, to provide needed affordable housing, to provide good jobs and to help existing local business. If the whole process has to start over with a new developer, several said, the development could be lost forever.
For retired police sergeant Scott Wagner, it was finding Lennar meets PLA requirements “or be known as ‘the city that could not make this happen.'”
Said Cora Mitchell of Concord, “If (Lennar) can pay their way into this deal, they can pay for union labor to finish it.” Otherwise, she said, a new developer should be found.
Birsan told Bonner his vote in 2016 to name Lennar as master developer was predicated in part on the company’s strong support of union labor for its then-current Hunter’s Point project in San Francisco.
“Was I not clear when I said I wanted the same thing here as in San Francisco?” Birsan said.
But several people Tuesday night said San Francisco’s housing market makes the extra cost of union labor more affordable than in Contra Costa County.
If the council find’s Lennar’s efforts to get a project labor agreement haven’t satisfied to meet the city’s requirements, Lennar could have to “relinquish their role as master developer for Phase 1” of the reuse project, according to a city report. And Bonner said that, without the proper deal, Lennar would walk away.
The U.S. Navy is awaiting a resolution of the Concord project labor agreement issue, and progress on a draft specific plan on the former weapons station land, to resume negotiations with the city of Concord for the formal sale and transfer of the land to the city.
The northernmost part of the old weapons station, north of state Highway 4, continues in operation as the Military Ocean Terminal Concord.
How many years has this project been delayed? Meanwhile in China they’ve built a nationwide network of high speed rail. Just think of how much more crowded 680, 242 and 4 will become.
The CNWS is not “delayed.” The Navy has been cleaning toxic waste off the property all of this time, sometimes running into previously unknown contamination that then had to be cleaned. No land was close to being able to be turned over to any buyer, including Concord, until now. The regional park land was turned over first in late 2019, largely because no humans would be building residential or commercial space so it didn’t have to be cleaned to the same standard. Some of the park land will remain off limits as cleaning goes on. The Navy expects to turn over portions of land to Concord for the building part of the project this year. That is why this construction unions/Lennar fight is going public now.
Even in turning over some property this year, there will be some sections in the middle of that property that are off limits because it is still contaminated. There are large sections of underground water at the Willow Pass bridge contaminated with TCE. This is all info available on the Navy website for the CNWS BRAC.
And, yes, we should expect the clean up to be held to very high standards, something China is not always at good at doing for its own people.
Two things come to mind.. didn’t the city council clarify IN WRITING – before choosing Lennar – that a specific percentage of union labor would be used? If not, why not? Seems like common sense to me.
And.. Do I recall concerns being raised about Lennar prior to the council awarding them this project?
Be happy they can’t make up their mind if you are a commuter. Houses are great but without the infrastructure support they can be hell.
Let’s not be fooled, Lennar bid this job knowing it would be Union labor. That was clear from the beginning. They’re attempting to improve their bottom line any way they can. I want to see them walk away from one of the most significant construction projects in Northern California history.
They are coming up short on funds because of the bribes they paid out. Ask Tim Grayson.
Did anyone talk about the propsed union wage and benefit schedules proposed for the PLA?
The general public should be told how high the proposed union hourly rates are. I support a good wage for these folks, but there is an upper limit where it becomes excessive.
Don’t build nothing stop being greedy everything cost so much because there are more people here because it’s supply and demand would you stop building and most of the people that Have been here for awhile are tired of more people coming! let me tell you we don’t want any more people here! can’t afford to live here move somewhere else. Do these people even drive around here Highway four is a mess it’s wall-to-wall traffic every day even with the expansion they made that took them like 20 years may I add talk about Pathetic. Nothing but greedy pathetic leaders and most of them guess what are lefties running this thing like a mafia…..reminds me of the movie Shawshank with the prison warden getting kickbacks this is insanity. What can I say anything for a buck that’s California politicians that’s all politicians. By the way unions are a scam it’s run like a communist mafia Like California. I believe there are plenty of laws on the books that unions are not needed anymore. And who is the insane person that allowed government jobs to be unionized? Does anybody remember the BART strikes what a fiasco
Your comment makes no sense. If they don’t build, prices will actually go even higher due to scarcity.
Demand is high. Supply is low. Prices go up. you said it yourself.
I was interested in how concord was going to handle all the extra traffic. Could find no plans except there implementing roads that feed into are already crowded streets. Am I missing something?
To those of you interested in the cleanup of the base.
On behalf of the Navy, the next Former Naval Weapons Station Concord RAB meeting will take place on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at the:
*CLYDE CLUBHOUSE*
109 Wellington Avenue
Clyde, CA 94520
We will meet from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Once I have an agenda for the meeting, I will send that out separately.
The RAB meetings are open to the public. Thank you for your continued support of Former Naval Weapons Station Concord cleanup program. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Navy RAB Co-chair Chris Yantos at the following information:
Chris Yantos
Phone: (619) 524-6023
christopher.yantos@navy.mil
2020 Tentative RAB Meeting Dates
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
October 2020 RAB Tour – Date to be determined
If you attend the meetings, you will get invited to go on the tour.
25% low cost housing? Do they use different building materials or Labor? The cost is the same tax payers will take the hit on the reduced cost.
It may be all about money for Lennar, but is also about money for the unions.
Notice the order of what’s important in this statement, “We’re trying to make sure we get our union wages and keep things to a high standard,” said Burt, a Pleasant Hill resident. “We want to keep everything competitive.”
Money first, quality second.
Lennar is crying poor bc they have to run an all union job? That’s BS! Let them walk away! This whole project as it stands with a labor impasse reeks of back room dealing in order to get the contract in the first place. This is US Naval property and US Union Labor should be doing the work!