The City of Newark is inviting Newark residents to its fourth and final community meeting about the Newark General Plan Enhancement Project.
The community meeting is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 21 at the .
The General Plan Enhancement Project's objective is to update the 20-year-old Newark General Plan, a policy document that acts as a guideline for county and city leaders when it comes to decision-making for future development.
At Saturday's meeting, a document known as the Preferred Growth Scenario will be presented. The document presents recommendations for growth that was created by a team of graduate students and one professor from the California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.
The proposals outlined in the Preferred Growth Scenario were drawn from various meetings, documents, community surveys and more, according to an email from Community Development Director Terrence Grindall.
In previous meetings, Newark residents expressed their desires for a “thriving downtown” and a civic center that provides more spaces that can be used by residents.
The Preferred Growth Scenario (PDF) document shows ways to do this by transforming the NewPark Mall area into a mixed-used area, expanding its Civic Center toward the corner of Thornton Avenue and Newark and renovating Newark’s Old Town district – an area located on Thornton Avenue that spans from Interstate 880 to the Union Pacific Rail.
The following are excerpts of the proposals for each area as written in the Preferred Growth Scenario.
NewPark Mall area is proposed as a town center that combines new commercial office buildings and an enhanced retail presence, while preserving the existing central mall building. The development in the NewPark Mall focuses on converting the overabundant amount of surface parking into opportunities for employment, housing, traditional and high end retail options, and a possible entertainment center.
Plaza
The Preferred Growth Scenario proposes a redesign and expansion of the Civic Center in its current location that expands north to Thornton Boulevard. The redesign and expansion of the Civic Center allows for a Civic Center Plaza as a community focal point, modernized facilities for the City, and an established identity.The Civic Center Plaza is envisioned to contain government offices, a public library, a police department, and proposed retail and office uses. The incorporation of the retail and office uses in the Civic Center Plaza provides employees in the plaza with amenities and offers employers opportunities to locate their business in a focal point destination.
Old Town
The Old Town District within the Old Town Corridor is the historic area of the city and is planned to contain mixed-use buildings and high density residential as proposed in the City’s 2010 Housing Element. Although building height is to remain within current zoning (a maximum of three to four stories in height), the Preferred Alternative Scenario recommends that development stay within two to three stories in height. …High-density residential use in the Old Town District is proposed to front Thornton Avenue and is envisioned to be lofts, condos, and apartments. The integration of residential uses in Old Town will enhance the area and maximize commercial growth. Recommended density of development in Old Town ranges between 20 to 30 units, which could be accomplished within structures that are two to three stories in height. With this level of development, Old Town could support the amenity of a public park proposed along Thornton Avenue at Magnolia Street. …The proposed area and park could host neighborhood events, such as farmers’ markets, festivals, and movie nights.
The document also outlines more information about the city’s plans to build a linear park along an undeveloped portion of Cedar Boulevard, the Dumbarton Transit-Oriented Development that will develop about 200 acres of land near Willow Street and the development of Area 3 and 4 near Cherry Street between Stevenson Boulevard and Mowry Avenue.
For more information, see the attached document or visit www.newark.org.
What do you think of the plans to enhance Newark's civic center, Old Town district and NewPark Mall areas? Tell us in the comment section below.
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Editor's Note: This report was updated to correct the date of the meeting.
How many plans have been proposed for Old Town over the years? Is the City planning to use eminent domain to take property for development? How else to have multi-storied apartments? The REIT that owns the mall has a big say in future development. Newark staff can envision all the enhancement and opportunities and visions it wants. The missing element is reality which in Newark is the same as fantasy.
The city recently changed zoning on the mall area precluding the kind of development the students proposed. In April the council voted to spend $80K on consultants to formulate a plan for the mall. How much more money will be wasted? Stunning that we see the results of the semester of studies that includes ideas such as a shuttle bus running around town; traffic calming measures on Thornton and a future bayside trail that has no bay side. Newark still lacks an updated general plan and environmental impact report. Thus this term paper has no basis in any kind of reality. CalPoly ends up with $20K in its coffers and we have a document with colorful drawings.
Newark's Community Development Director Terrance Grindall is demonstrating basic incompetence if he needs out-of-town college kids to put a happy face on his nefarious plan. Anybody that is concerned should attend the general plan meeting on July 21st and do their best to help keep our government honest and accountable. Once the condominium projects and the other blight goes up, they'll never come down.
Take the meandering bike trail and park on the unfinished sections of Cedar Blvd. WHO is going to pay for these proposed improvements and WHO will maintain them? We have already seen the City cut back on park maintenance when times became a little lean. I am sure that the homeowners, whose property lines are adjacent to the unfinished Cedar Blvd, will be thrilled with a park on the street with the potential for crime and other nefarious activities affecting their property. The only logical section, for a park, would be the section between the railroad tracks and Hailey. The most logical use for the other unfinished blocks is to either pave them, as a street, or run a line down the middle and let the land go back to the adjacent property owners. They would get a bigger lot and it would make a lot more sense to put in new property sound walls for the new lot size. In addition, new lots, with new houses, could be created and built where the unfinished streets end at an already paved street. I bet you could get 2 to 4 new lots and homes where Cedar Blvd. intersects with Spruce St, and the same where it intersects with Bettencourt. In fact, (continued in next comment) Dean Lewis
As for the rest of the plan, there are many owners of the land and buildings in the NewPark area. Getting them all together to agree on the proposed developments would take a Herculean effort that ‘aint going to happen. It is also doubtful that the land can ever be cleaned (ie, remove the chemical pollutants) in the so called Area 2 (the old FMC and other chemical plant area) to develop the transit proposed development. The proposed train station is a joke and will do little to serve our residents. A train station needs to be built in the area of Central and Sycamore. That way it could serve all the trains (ACE, Capital, etc) that run through Newark. Underling all of this is “Why would anyone want to build all this stuff in Newark anyway?” It is not like we are the center of the universe. We don’t have the traffic or population to support a “Santana Row” type development in the City. Wake up and quit dreaming. Dean Lewis
The problem is that the savings is always illusory. It is a gain for someone at the cost of someone else. At full cost it is prohibitive, but once you add the government subsidies (tax dollars) and the government agency payment (more tax dollars), you have the full prohibitive cost borne by the tax payer.
Unfortunately the notion of the public coming together to discuss city planning is farcical at best. This is not meant as an insult to anyone or to be dismissive: 1. The Emperor has no clothes.... City Planning is really a superfluous monopoly function interfering with the property rights of others breeding mischievous conflicts of political and economic interest at taxpayer expense. 2. Planning is either a science or an art. If a science then some study is required along some principled study. If an art, it requires some aesthetic taste neither of which are best found in a committee. Either way is a dressed up process for compelling business/home owners how to re-direct their resources. 3. Planning can better take place by voluntary and distributed cooperation among experienced business people and owners at private expense. 4. Abolishing plans, licensing, fees, and the multitude of other restrictions would do more for Newark's improvement than anything done in it's history or likely to be done in its future under government planning. AUDIO: The Private Production of Urban Planning Daniel Coleman and Stephen Krogh ASC Panel: Economic Freedom http://mises.org/media/3048/ Jane Jacobs, The Anti-Planner http://mises.org/daily/1247
"There is a wistful myth that if only we had enough money to spend ... we could wipe out all our slums in ten years .. and perhaps even solve the traffic problem. "But look what we have built with the (money already received): Low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace. Middle-income housing projects which are truly marvels of dullness and regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life. ... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums, who have fewer choices of loitering places than others. Commercial centers that are lack-luster imitations of standardized suburban chain-store shopping. Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. "Thousands upon thousands of small businesses are destroyed, and their proprietors ruined, with hardly a gesture at compensation. Whole communities are torn apart and sown to the winds, with a reaping of cynicism, resentment and despair that must be heard and seen to be believed. "(And) the increased tax returns from such sites, accruing to the cities as a result of this 'investment,' are a mirage, a pitiful gesture against the ever-increasing sums of public money needed to combat disintegration and instability that flow from the cruelly shaken-up city."
Dean Lewis
On my side the tracks could go from the rr tracks to Bettencourt. 3 trips around the oval for $2.00. Toot! Toot! All aboard!! On the other side of the tracks pony rides and more carnival concessions. On second thought maybe we shouldn't give the planning commission any more ideas. I don't want any part of that land to revert to me, but I sure would like to see it turned into someting useful. Right now it's the place where all the dirt and gravel are dumped for trucks to pick up while doing road work. The conifers they are pruning row are beautiful trees, but they are way too big to be planted curb side even on a street that never opens.