The Concord City Council will restart the process of selecting a master developer for the former Concord Naval Weapons Station on Tuesday, discussing what they want to include in the official request for qualifications.
The Navy abandoned the inland area of the base in 1999 and officially designated it surplus in 2007, naming the Concord City Council as the area’s local reuse authority (LRA). The city developed a master plan aiming to turn 2,300 acres on the city’s northeastern edge into its own community, with 13,000 housing units, millions of square feet of commercial use, and a regional park.
The city selected Lennar Five Point as its master developer of the site in 2016. The company pulled out of the project in March 2020 when its initial exclusive negotiating agreement expired and its negotiations with local labor unions failed.
The city disbanded its reuse project community advisory board in December, saying at the time there was no real work to do. The board hadn’t met in more than two years, though the council did discuss how to re-start the process.
Now the city is ready to try again.
In a report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting, the city’s director of community reuse planning Guy Bjerke wrote the proposed selection process will be different than what the city did from 2014-16. The process will be expedited, allowing the council to select a new master developer by August.
“The quicker process should allow the LRA and chosen master developer to restart the specific plan and environmental impact report in early 2022, leading to land use entitlements, a disposition and development agreement, and an economic development agreement with the U.S. Navy in 2023,” Bjerke wrote.
Among the city’s expectations in the new request is retaining ownership of 16 acres for commercial use as a future revenue source. It also states a preference for union labor agreements with local workers and that 25 percent of the area’s units be affordable to lower-income households.
The proposed questions for developers cover financing, how they would phase the project, and how they would tackle working with the LRA to reach the necessary land agreement with the Navy. They specify the city needs a “committed development partner for this project” that would “engage a broad spectrum of Concord residents and stakeholders as planning, entitlement and development progresses.”
The proposed selection criteria are based on understanding the city’s priorities, financial capability, a history of success on projects with large infrastructure, mixed-use, transit oriented and military base reuse, and experience with skilled subconsultants such as architects, engineers, permitting, and remediation specialists.
The report also outlines a new timeline for the project, aiming to have the request for proposals out by April 16. The city’s deadline for answers in writing would be May 14. The council would select by Aug. 3 the developers to interview, with the interviews taking place by Aug. 24 (which may include actual selection of a master developer). The city would like to have initial negotiations done by Aug. 31 and have an agreement with its choice by Sept. 23.
The Concord City Council meets virtually at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The meeting can be accessed at https://bit.ly/31MJ0DA.
18 comments
Hog wash just more ways for the city politicians to get there pockets lined.
Looks like follow the money and the traffic jams. 13,000 houses? They have to be joking.
How much of your money has the City Council already dumped into this project?
Has the Owner of the property ever agreed in writing to sell or give this property to the City of Concord, or even set a date?
How much money have developers “donated” to city council member’s reelection campaigns?
How much longer are the voters going to allow their representatives to dump their tax dollars into this bottomless pit?
I certainly hope the City Council has learned enough from the failures they have experienced so far to get the deal done this time without further bankrupting the City of its precious tax dollars.
And, by the way, taxes will go up to help pay for this boondoggle of a process with promises of riches in return.
A lot of people will get rich, none of them you, or me.
We’ll just pay more for less.
Seeno always wins. You can’t beat the house.
… see article in EB times today… they’re already committing some of the same errors as last time with contributions … no surprise I guess.. it’ll be another 20 yrs before anything is done
Thanks for the heads up about the EB Times editorial today. I encourage all Concord residents to read it and send their comments to the Concord City Council.
Just say NO! to Seeno.
+1
Just leave the entire area alone so the critters and cattle can have a home of their own, especially all the wild turkeys running around all over Concord.
funny how fast things went back to normal
when voters got enough signatures to recall the newscum
and how city council went right back to lining their pockets
while leaving the populous full of bums and criminals roaming the streets
wont ever fix or focus on that
it makes them no money just forces us out
time to impeach the council and go back to a mayor
at least a mayor can be taken to court and jailed
councils just rip us off and laugh while doing it
Either move Buchanan Field out there and redevelop where it is now or bring in a AAA baseball team and build a stadium there. Having BART near by surely helps.
If this is developed it will be the final nail in the coffin of this city being a nice place to live. As is just getting around the city is a nightmare of traffic and bad roads that never seem to get fixed or even fixed right, now add in more traffic.
Along with this every year it seems they scream to save water that we are in a drought, where is all this extra water for these families going to come from, they already over draw from the delta making a mess of it and running the brackish water garter upstream. Every one in politics screams Green This isn’t green it is so destructive to this region
It is NOT the impact on the infrastructure but the requirement by law that a certain % of residences to be built must PROVIDE low-income availability!! What does that tell you?
All you posters can gnash your teeth, rant and rave all you want but it is a fact. In CoCo County we must follow the Federal and State’s mandate for “Inclusionary Housing” guidelines. Being that this is Concord city jurisdiction, there’s no telling how this mandate will be addressed since both Concord and the state chose to be “Sanctuary” designated!
Good Luck, folks, as I will be dead by the time this all goes through!! YEEAAA!
+1
This site should be developed as the new county fairgrounds and use the crappy one in Antioch for simple swap meets and races. Rather than have more housing and congesting commute hour traffic, build a nice new county fairgrounds, with plenty of room for events and parking, traffic would only increase during events and not daily!! This would also increase the county residences moral and safety to have a fairgrounds other than the one in Antioch which is flooded with crime in that specific area!!!! Fill the empty houses before trying to build more for people to buy and cheat renters with!!!
If it isn’t corrupt, it must not be Concord! And you just know that the ‘end result’ will be an abomination.
We are headed for a drought and apparently California’s powergrid can’t handle current demand in warm weather so why? Concord doesn’t have any open space left. Seeno et al has seen to that. Have you checked out the hills along 4; so ugly and untastefully done; no services. They have have one shopping center and pay more than everyone else in property taxes.
We are headed for a drought and apparently California’s powergrid can’t handle current demand in warm weather so why? Concord doesn’t have any open space left. Seeno et al has seen to that. Have you checked out the hills along 4; so ugly and untastefully done; no services. They have one shopping center and pay more than everyone else in property taxes. The way the on ramp to 4 was modified, it can’t handle any more traffic. That on ramp at 4/Willow Pass is so dangerous. What were they thinking?
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