Development

Richmond seeks help planning for foot of sea rise that will hit its long shoreline

Looking inward from the tip of Point Pinole, it is hard to imagine that much of the gradually sloping expanse that is Richmond’s 32-mile shoreline could someday be transformed into a bulwark against global sea level rise.  In September, the city issued a request for proposals from contractors to author a strategic document that could guide Richmond’s response to the foot or so of ocean water expected to inundate coastal cities the world over.  In addition to requiring a detailed…

No new sewer line means no new construction at Keller Beach

It will be quite some time before any new homes are built in Keller Beach.  Since January 2022, property owners in the small Point Richmond neighborhood have been barred from obtaining building permits, owing to a city moratorium on new connections to the Keller Beach Sanitary Sewer, which stretches for just over a mile along the area’s coastline.  City officials tagged the line in November 2021, according to records, because of “severe internal corrosion” and sand deposits in portions of…

Transforming the floating home community at Point San Pablo Harbor

When Kathleen Clancy and Bob Keller moved their houseboat into the Point San Pablo Harbor 33 years ago, the first person they met was a man they remember by his license plate, “CPTBLUD” (Captain Blood).  “It was like walking into an old western,” Clancy said. She remembers the day was gray, and the place was deserted. Decades before the couple moved in, John Wayne shot his 1955 film “Blood Alley” at the harbor.  Now it is home to around 35…

Groundwater cleanup of contaminated Zeneca site to begin next month

Zeneca Inc. will begin a series of “groundwater injections” next month at the controversial Campus Bay project site in South Richmond, setting off a nine-month process to break down hazardous compounds underlying the 86-acre patch of coastal land.  According to Zeneca planning documents, contractors will pump thousands of gallons of city water, reactive iron, microbes and microbe food into about 400 wells that dot the 86-acre site, which lies due west of Richmond’s Panhandle Annex neighborhood. The idea, California Department…

New mayor will appoint majority of Design Review Board, steering future Richmond development

In January, Mayor Tom Butt will leave office, and a majority of the Design Review Board may follow him.  The City Council rejected Butt’s proposed appointments of two new members to the DRB in a 3-3-1 vote at the Nov. 15 meeting. Vice Mayor Eduardo Martinez and council members Claudia Jimenez and Gayle McLaughlin voted against the appointments. Council member Melvin Willis abstained.  “I’ll tell you a little secret,” Butt told the council. “We’re not going to have a quorum…

Richmond hit with another Point Molate lawsuit, indefinitely delaying any development

Point Molate, a scenic stretch of San Francisco Bay shoreline, has faced one legal battle after another over its ownership and development potential.  A new lawsuit, filed on May 27 in Contra Costa County Superior Court, seeks $20 million from the City of Richmond and threatens to tie up the 425-acre plot indefinitely. Winehaven Legacy LLC, a subsidiary of developer SunCal, has accused the city of breaching its contract and breaking the Brown Act, which governs public meetings in California. …

Big jury award could open door to another cannabis dispensary in Richmond

A court case last month possibly set the stage for a new cannabis dispensary in Richmond, the resurrection of an old fight to keep it out — or both.  Two Richmond dispensary owners were ordered to pay $5 million in damages for conspiring against a rival owner. On Sept. 23, a Contra Costa County jury found that William Koziol and Darrin Parle, who operate the Green Remedy Collective, had prevented a prospective dispensary, Richmond Compassionate Care Collective, from establishing a…