CRUCIAL COUNCIL DECISION ON SEENO NEXT TUESDAY, JUNE 3! PLAN TO ATTEND!!!

Next Tuesday, June 3rd, the approval or denial of the Benicia Business Park proposal (Seeno Project) will be on the Agenda of the Benicia City Council.

Benicia deserves:

• A visionary, future oriented plan for the 527 acre Seeno Project.
• The recognition of Benicia’s unique situation on the I 80 corridor between Sacramento and San Francisco and its’ proximity to both Davis and Berkeley with their leadership in green industrial development, research and development, and the need for clean building technology.
• A Project that reflects this city’s unique character and priorities.

BeniciaFirst! Protests:

• The traffic impacts of this project on Semple School.
• The air quality impact on Semple School.
• The possible Urban Decay of downtown Benicia.
• That the Seeno Project is based on an old warehousing and shipping model over an anticipated build-out of 20-25 years.
• The 35 acre commercial development will require a fully staffed police facility.

The Benicia Planning Commission has already voted 6-1 to deny the Seeno Project. It is crucially important that everyone possible attend this meeting and voice their disapproval of this flawed proposal or provide support to those who do.

Meeting begins at 6:00. If this is early for you, don’t sweat it, just come when you can. Bring a friend! (The actual Seeno Hearing is last on the Agenda, and probably won't begin until 7:00 or later.)

Reports and Articles on Bay Area Cleantech industry

The reports and articles listed below reveal the strength and extremely promising economic potential of the emerging cleantech phenomenon, globally and particularly in the Bay Area, even during the current economic downturn affecting all other business sectors.

These reports clearly indicate that it would be far better for the healthy economic future of Benicia if the Seeno Business Park proposal would begin Phase I of the project in the industrial zone (with a specific focus on cleantech R&D and industrial production) instead of the currently proposed Phase I focused on a freeway-oriented commercial development.

The reports describe a dramatic explosion of University R&D, spin off businesses, government initiatives and grants, venture capital, etc., all focused on cleantech innovations spread across a wide spectrum of industries. So far, most of the action has been focused in the South Bay (Silicon Valley area) and San Francisco, but they are experiencing increasing pressure to locate elsewhere due to space constraints, housing costs, and traffic congestion.

Benicia is perfectly situated to capitalize on this economic opportunity, as we are situated 40 minutes from both UC Davis and UC Berkeley -- two of the key cleantech research centers -- with acres of vacant land already zoned industrial. We also have a perfectly matched employment pool (well educated, much of it white-collar professional, management, office, and skilled technical), most of whom currently have to commute elsewhere for jobs. And we have relatively low cost housing (in comparison to Silicon Valley and SF) and good schools. Since cleantech R&D would probably also pull some researchers from the university centers of Berkeley and San Francisco, it might give us a better shot at getting a ferry stop here. This could be Benicia's golden egg. But only if we act now, gaining first move advantage while the opportunity is still fresh.

Here is a link to Benicia's 10-year Economic Development Strategy which was adopted by the City Council Sept. 2007. On page 9 it sets out our city's strategy to increase "campus-style office" and "clean energy, high-tech R&D uses in our industrial districts" over the next 10 years. And on page 11 it states that such uses are more likely to provide jobs for Benicians because of our community demographics (which are described on page 2 & 3). It states on page 12, "The City Council's adoption of this Strategy will provide policy direction to City employees and a clear message to prospective businesses about our community priorities and economic development interests."

Please click on the links below to read these important reports and articles that document the cleantech economic opportunity:

REPORTS

1. Clean Technology And the Green Economy, March 2008

2. Clean Energy Trends 2008 , March 2008

3. Innovative Energy Solutions from the SF Bay Area: Fueling a Clean Energy Future, June 2007

4. The Economic Development Potential of the Green Sector, June 2006

ARTICLES

1. Bay Area in league of its own
"New game: Cleantech didn't even have a name five years ago."
San Francisco Business Times, Jan. 4, 2008

2. Hopeful cleantech hubs proliferate around the bay
"Cleantech is the Bay Area's future."
San Francisco Busines Times, Dec. 14, 2007

3. East Bay mayors, UC unite for 'Green Wave'
East Bay leaders, hoping to capitalize on energy research emerging from UC and LBL, intend to create a regional environmental hub.
Chronicle, SFGate, Dec. 4, 2007

Benicia First statement on Business Park, 5/6/08

We have reached a crisis point in consideration of the Benicia Business Park. The decision of the City Council in this matter will have a profound impact upon the future of Benicia.

The Council is faced with the following choices: (1) To attempt to reshape the current version submitted by Seeno by the use of either a huge number of conditions of approval or by a development agreement or (2) To deny the project and ask Seeno to return with a new proposal reflective of the cities needs and desires and the new economic realities of the time.

The character and economics of industrial development have radically changed in just the past few years, a change not reflected in either the initial or the revised plan presented by the Seeno Company. Even if limited solely to an economic evaluation and assessing only the future economic prospects for Benicia, the Seeno plans have not made sense. The first plan was an incredibly bad proposal, a dated warehousing and shipping model, involving no concern for scenic values, environmental impacts, economic sustainability, energy efficiency, market realities or the Benicia General Plan.

While the alternative plan now presented has attached some of the buzzwords of the new industrial era, and has reduced impacts, it is clear that at the conceptual level it remains mired in the past. There is neither a deep understanding of nor a deep commitment to anything resembling a coherent, integrated research and development campus, anchored by some major technological core. This is reflected in its phasing plan; it is reflected in its fragmented approach and it is reflected in the complete lack of any overarching vision of the whole project. Its scope is reduced but it is still far from the kind of project envisioned in Benicia’s Economic Development Strategy. It still does not conform to the General Plan, still provides no evidence of serious economic analysis and is still starkly deficient in any awareness of current trends or the rich potential of the Benicia site.

Whether north Benicia development will ever achieve what the city has set forth in its development strategy, is heavily dependent upon (1) the developer sharing with the city the same goals and vision for the overall project; (2) finding the right kind of high tech, research and development venture to anchor the development and to stimulate related technological enterprise, and (3) creating the kind of campus setting that fits this type of industry. It is precisely this kind of venture and this kind of planning that is now attracting major economic focus and venture capital and has the Bay area leading the state, at a time when general business credit is very tight. There is little indication to date that the Seeno Company understands these realities. One crucial planning reality is that any initial development begun without such understanding can immediately close off all the rich potential and possibilities of Benicia’s situation.

What we do not want, what we absolutely must avoid. is to begin with a large commercial development, potentially conducive to urban decay and then “phase” into a string of warehouses and random unrelated activities created over the next twenty-five years.

In our view, the establishment of hundreds of conditions of approval is a woefully inadequate method to deal with the shortcomings of the Seeno plan. It is a fragmented approach; it will neither create nor insure a coherent project and is a virtual guarantor of continuous oversight problems. There is no way that the present proposal can be nudged, negotiated or forced into anything resembling what this city wants, or to fit the demands for sustainable, future oriented, technologically oriented, green industrial development. Nor do we believe that moving to a development agreement, while a step better than detailing conditions of approval, can solve that fundamental problem.

For these reasons, we believe it to be imperative for the city to deny this project and ask Seeno to come back with a new sustainable, campus oriented, cleantech project reflecting current and future economic and environmental realities, demands and opportunities OR, to bring in a partner, capable of such planning. We further believe that the city should assure the Seeno Company that it is prepared to engage actively in expediting such a proposal and cooperating fully in its realization.

Analysis of revised Benicia Business Park project

We have read the new Benicia Business Park proposal submitted to the city of Benicia by the Seeno Corporation on March 20. The following summarizes Benicia First reactions to that proposal.We appreciate that this plan is an improvement from the initial proposal.

It is reduced in size, providing for greater open space and attention has been given to certain mitigations of environmental impacts. It proposes to incorporate LEEDS standards in building design as well as Low Impact Development standards both of which are highly desirable and commendable.

Nonetheless, a number of issues and questions remain, An example would be traffic near the Semple School with its air quality, noise and safety problems. Using the state standards for siting of schools which set a maximum of 100,000 vehicle trips daily close to the school, we noted in our analysis of the initial project that this could be projected to 137,000 at project build out. The project reduction being proposed would reduce this to 131,000 trips a day, hardly an adequate mitigation. Other problems of traffic, including noise and safety, were dealt with very cursorily and clearly inadequately in the EIR.

Further, the very significant danger that the large centralized commercial development will compete with and negatively affect Benicia's efforts to revitalize First Street as its business center still exists.

We believe that such issues require an initial study before project approval.

However even more important is what we regard as the central issue and problem with this proposal. It is that while smaller and less environmentally intrusive, this project continues to reflect the same fundamental conceptual flaw as the original, its lack of a coherent and integrated development basis.

What is singularly lacking is any attention to the desirability of a campus setting, or a research and development core, biotech, for example, which would shape the entire project and provide the nucleus and engine, helping to stimulate additional high quality R&D ventures as well as subsidiary and supportive projects.

We express again our concern that Benicia not settle for a backward oriented project simply framed as an extension of our existing industrial park. In the explosively changing economic climate of these times, the long term viability of that type of static twentieth century model would be in great doubt.

It is vitally important that what takes place in this last major piece of Benicia's developable land be aesthetically inviting, with attractive structures, scenically placed, green in design, economically viable over the long term, sustainable in every sense of that term and productive of the kind of high wage jobs matching the demographics of Benicia. By virtue of location, transportation and its special characteristics, Benicia is in a uniquely strong position to attract such an economy. Why would we consider anything less?

Further, the type of light industrial and warehousing development suggested in this plan is in direct contradiction to the city's planning. The Economic Development Strategy developed by the EDB commission and adopted by the Council last September, sets out an overriding economic goal of encouraging a campus-style project in our industrial areas, specifically encouraging "clean energy, high-tech, research and development" uses.

In the absence of such a coherent, inherently stimulative focus, the shaping of Benicia's future is clearly left to chance. The Seeno project as constituted simply sets out a pattern of providing space for light industry and warehousing, a pattern in which initial entries could foreclose such a focus.

It is our view that before this project moves forward, this central issue must be addressed and resolved. Achieving that goal would provide high wage employment, matching Benicia's demographics, a steady dependable growth in related research and development and a need for related office space. That kind of high quality development demands and insures the preservation of aesthetic, environmental and architectural integrity. Most importantly by its productivity it would provide a highly sustainable future for Benicia and with that a profitable return for Seeno.

Jerome Page, April 4, 2008
Chair, Benicia First www.beniciafirst.com

Who is Benicia First and what is the Seeno Project?

Who is Benicia First?

Benicia First is a network of Benicians committed to ensuring that development projects in Benicia must adhere to our General Plan's vision of creating a vibrant local economy, preserving of our environment, and enhancing of our cultural and historic resources.

In order to meet these goals, we believe that projects must employ the newly emerging development and economic models that are designed to meet the environmental and economic challenges of the 21st Century, and not rely on assumptions and models that worked in the past but are no longer economically and environmentally viable.

What is the Seeno Project?

The proposed Benicia Business Park is commonly referred to as the Seeno Project because it is owned by Discovery Builders, an Albert Seeno company. The Business Park is a huge commercial/light industrial development proposed for the rolling hills in the north-east section of Benicia. Starting at Lake Herman Road and E. 2nd Street, it extends in a 527-acre wedge along both roads.

Although commercial and light industrial use is permitted for this property, the project, as currently conceived and designed, would radically change the character and livability of Benicia forever. It fails to conform to many important goals in our General Plan relating to environmental and economic quality and sustainability, and the type of commercial businesses proposed for the development would weaken our Downtown as the City's central commercial zone, contributing to urban decay.

For more information, see our website, http://www.beniciafirst.com/ , where you can read more details about the project, and veiw our slide show presentations.

A POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE VISION:

We have great concern about the proposed Seeno project, its size, conceptual design and obvious impacts, including many not subject to adequate mitigation. What is entailed in this project as designed will irrevocably alter the character and quality of life of Benicia without the promise of a viable, prosperous long term future.

We do not believe that Benicia should settle for a backward oriented, conventional project framed as something of an extension of our present industrial park. The long term economic viability of that static twentieth century model would be in great doubt.

We believe that the site, the landscape, the quality of Benicia and its population make it an ideal setting for the types of creative, research oriented companies and enterprises that will be shaping the future of our country. We believe that a development that uses the beauty of our landscape as an asset is preferable to one that destroys it.

The country is beginning to awaken to concepts of sustainability, of green enterprises, of a future not dependent upon a petroleum economy and it is hungry for ideas. Numerous cities and towns are beginning to respond with projects and ideas for that future. We believe that Benicia has a unique opportunity to be among them.

There has already been talk of searching for a research and development center, that itself becomes a magnet for other creative and future oriented new enterprises. We would like to work with other groups and individuals in developing plans for such a search and in developing the criteria for the type of development in which all Benicians can have confidence and pride.

We believe that Benicians working together can frame such a future for Benicia and we pledge to do everything in our power to assist in achieving that end.