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CONCORD NAVAL WEAPONS STATION REUSE PLAN
The Concord City Council, sitting as
the Local Reuse Authority, certified the final EIR and adopted
the Reuse Plan for the Concord Naval Weapons Station at its
meeting February 23, 2010. The Clustered Villages alternative
was chosen as the adopted plan. The plan and EIR will now
be submitted to the Navy for review.
The Clustered Villages alternative, which focuses high density,
mixed-use development near the North Concord BART station, but
also provides a string of three clustered communities to the
south of the BART station. Most of the land east of Mt. Diablo
Creek will be preserved for open space and recreation (64% of
the base has been designated park and open space). In addition
a
widened urban linear park along the neighborhoods and a Cal
State campus are included in the plan.
The plan is a model of new smart growth concepts, including
providing enough density to facilitate transit and encourage
affordable housing. It also concentrates high density, mixed-use
development near transit and provides a significant number of
new jobs for Concord and the region. It is a balanced and
financially sustainable plan.
The city is to be commended for its extensive public outreach,
resulting in a final decision that engendered very little
opposition. Throughout the process, Save Mount Diablo
participated in a Regional Stakeholder Group that included
Contra Costa Council; Home Builders Association of Northern
California; Central Labor Council; East Bay Housing
Organizations; East Bay Regional Park District; Craft Consulting
Group; Carlson, Barbee & Gibson; Gray-Bowen; Contra Costa
Community College District and Cal State East Bay. This group
developed consensus around key issues and forwarded those ideas
to the city's project team. While we often had somewhat
different agendas, we found much common ground on the issues
involved with the Weapons Station project.
Save Mount Diablo is also part of the Community Coalition for a
Sustainable Concord (Community Coalition).
The Coalition is a collection of affordable housing, interfaith,
labor, conservation & neighborhood organizations seeking a plan
that preserves the Weapons Station's natural resources and
scenic hillsides.
Save Mount Diablo will continue to stay involved in the process
for the next several years while the environmental review is
done and the plan is further refined. |
