“China Town - Court St. Proposal”
October 1999
 

Viewpoint Article

By City Council Member Dave Romero

Just one month ago, the City Council received a proposal from the Copeland family requesting the City enter into agreement to cooperate in a visionary redevelopment of several blocks of downtown near the Government Center. The concept was enthusiastically endorsed by the City Council, and staff was instructed to cooperate and expedite the project in every way, including the hiring of consultants and extra staff as needed. Following this direction, staff prepared, and the City Council approved, a Memorandum of Understanding giving the Copelands an exclusive 120 day period to refine the scope of the project and for points of negotiation to be more fully articulated. The City also hired a consultant, Allan Kotin, and met with him in a study session to become more aware of the multiple complications inherent in this project.

The project has been thoroughly covered by the media, therefore, this article will outline only the bare bones concept. Very briefly, the Copeland family and the City own most of the property along Palm Street across from City Hall and the Palm Street parking structure. The proposal calls for the City to sell these properties to Copeland (at fair market value) and abandon a portion of Morro Street in this block to allow Copeland to develop an underground parking structure, city offices in a building to be sited near the library, and a complex of shops (with housing above), to be developed with a Chinese motif. The plan calls for development of what is now the Court Street parking lot for commercial uses similar to the Downtown Center.

Upon completion of the construction, the City could acquire (at fair market value) the city office annex building and the public parking. The entire project has been presented in concept form with very attractive renderings and is to be further refined after a series of public workshops to be held over the next two months. At the September presentation to the City Council, Tom Copeland indicated his desire to have stores he would develop in the Court Street Center open for the Christmas season next year. However, more detailed examination of this very complicated project has brought a realization that, at best, the project will require several years to complete.

Some of the major issues which must be addressed are:

• How do appraisers set a fair market value on Morro Street, on the existing City offices, on the existing City parking lots?
• How much expansion of city office space should be included in the annex building?
• Will location of city offices across Palm Street (as opposed to expansion of the existing building) provide a satisfactory level of service to the public?
• Should the City purchase, lease or lease/purchase this building.
• Who pays to reroute all the underground utility lines in Morro Street?
• How much total parking should be provided in the new underground structure? How much private/public parking?
• Should some of the housing over the Chinatown shops be affordable, set aside for seniors, reserved for shopkeepers only?

• Public works personnel working out of the Morro Street offices will have to be relocated to a suitable downtown site while the new parking structure and new offices are under construction.
• Construction of the new underground parking structure will require removal of 150 public parking spaces, and a large number of private spaces, during construction. How will those be replaced during the work?
• The Environmental Impact Report and supplement for the Marsh Street parking structure required 45 months. The new underground parking structure is located near the Mission, in Chinatown and requires major earthwork. It may well be more complicated than the Marsh Street EIR.
• An archeological dig may be required.
  The exact number of parking spaces required can’t be determined until the scoping and much of the city processing (ARC and Planning Commission) has been completed.
• The parking structure will require at least six months to construct after design and city approvals.
• Only then should the City allow the Copeland Center project on Court Street to proceed. It, too, will require at least six months for construction after design and City approvals.