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Friday, February 10, 2012
”OLD SOUL” ALLEY PROJECT RECEIVES MAJOR BOOST
by Steve Cohn, published on December 16, 2009 at 2:25 PM
Storyline: Alley Activation
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On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, the Sacramento City Council authorized the use of $100,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for infrastructure improvements for a “Pedestrian First” pilot alley project between Capitol Avenue and L Street from 17th to 18th Streets. Many readers know this as the alley where “Old Soul” Coffee House resides. Private contributions of in-kind services and dollars have also been raised for design and enhancements.
This pilot “Pedestrian First Alley” project will include pedestrian-oriented safety features such as way-finding signage, accessibility improvements, and traffic mitigation; beautification features such as enhanced pavement, lighting, landscaping and outdoor furniture; and replacement of century-old combined sewer and storm drains, and other utility lines. The City’s recently adopted General Plan recognizes the tremendous unfulfilled potential that Central City alleys present as pedestrian thoroughfares, residential front-doors, small business locations and possible restaurant and café designations. In contrast, most alleys in the city now function as service areas for trash disposal, vehicle access to garages and rear/side entrances of abutting property and emergency service access.
For the past few years, a group of Central City residents, property owners, architects, builders, city staff and other stakeholders formed the Alley Activation Committee, meeting regularly to discuss how to transform selected alleyways in the Central City from back-of-house service entrances and potential crime zones to vibrant spaces that contribute positively to the Central City’s ambiance and livability.
On August 11, 2009, the Alley Activation Committee introduced three different pilot project ideas to the City Council: (1) “Pedestrian First Alley”; (2) “Alley Oriented Residential Uses” in which the City promotes higher density by allowing more housing units on the back portion of a parcel fronting on an alley than would normally be allowed under the applicable zoning ordinance; and (3) “Restaurant Uses” such as including outdoor seating. All of these ideas were well received and Council directed city staff to work with the Alley Activation Committee to develop pilot projects, including the Old Soul Alley project described above, look for potential funding sources and increase community outreach.
Since August, the Alley Activation Committee have focused on the Old Soul Alley project, in conjunction with a land use application filed by Jeremy Drucker for a four-unit residential project fronting on the same alley. Many of you know Drucker as the innovative, green builder who successfully developed the area’s first LEED-certified residential project, “9 on F” (a nine-unit townhouse project at 14th &F). Both Drucker and members of the Alley Activation Committee have spoken directly to all property owners on this pilot alley, and they have been notified of public hearings on the Drucker project. In addition, presentations on alley activation have been made to the Midtown Neighborhood Association, the Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAG), SOCA, ECOS, the City Disabilities Advisory Commission, the Midtown Business Association, and the Downtown Partnership.
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May i also suggest the city consider installing pedestrian crossing lights for the crosswalk on J and 20th Streets? With the MARRS - Midtown Art Retail Restaurant Scene attracting so many customers, and cars zipping down J, I think it would be a small investment with a large return in public safety.
http://www.lightguardsystems.com/irwl.shtml
http://www.silicon-constellations.com/lumistar.html
While it is true that councilmembers can decide which projects get CDBG funds, city code requires that the council approve any expenditure of $100,000 or more, according to the city's transportation department. The city manager may approve expenditures of $99,999 or less.
The council also must vote to set up a Capital Improvement Project such as this.
They are also being subsidized to open the Oak Park Coffee shop near 40 Acres.
Note: This is an earnest question, so I'd appreciate non-hostile responses to it.
One reason that this alley should not be the template for development of other alleys is that Old Soul was developed illegally, with the knowledge and enabling of city leaders, who have protected them, while Old Soul violated various jurisdictions laws in as many ways as they could/can get away with. Old Soul Co's "catch us if you can" behaviors and the City's "look the other way" policy have caused constant nuisances and unaddressed public safety hazards for neighbors for four years.
Not least of which is the ongoing parking nightmare, with Old Soul Co. customers, vendors, owners, employees, etc. constantly stopping in the alley illegally, blocking the alley, using neighbors parking, in violation of their almost one year old parking waiver. This is one of the reasons their illegal development has generated problems.
The Alley Activation Committee's plans for "activating" the alley, include further constricting the alley, adding outdoor seating to the cafe (the current tables and chairs are illegal and unenforced), plus other obstructions, without honestly addressing the realities of the vehicular traffic and parking generated by Old Soul Co.
If the City showcases this as a pattern for success, when they have violated their own rules and not enforced city codes, they will use it as an excuse to do the same elsewhere -- or eliminate relevant public legal protections altogether. This was Matrix project and may have been one of the illegal FPP cases. The neighbors were never noticed by the City on the Old Soul project, there was no public comment or engagement at all.
The business opened out of compliance with a loud industrial noise running for hours several times a day and night -- City Hall did nothing to correct it but told the neighbors Old Soul owners would "cooperate," which they never have. It was the City's responsibility to make Old Soul comply, not to allow them to open in violation of zoning codes -- the owners refused to correct the problem for a year.
When the cronyistic development cabal comes to your neighborhood, you get to see the real story, not the media spin and business booster's propaganda. All comments about Old Soul Co. are in the public record, quoted comments of the owners themselves in the media, or comments from their customers and employees online.
From what I've read in the news, their alley location wasn't zoned for a food establishment but they got away with it; it wasn't zoned for a retail cafe, but they got away with it; there wasn't enough parking, but they got away with it. And their Weatherstone location is no different; Health and Labor Code violations, remodeling without proper permits, etc. And despite all this they're more or less being handed $100,000 by the city in addition to getting help opening a new location?
I guess the moral of the story is that it pays to be in bed with the press; drum up whatever story you want and they'll print it for you.
There may have been presentations at various meetings but were people told that Ben Ali was being robbed of $100,000 to do this alley? Were Ben Ali residents told and did they approve when they need more sidewalks and street lights?
As a condition of receiving this money, Drucker and Old Soul should repay with interest Ben Ali folks.
There is a time to spend money on stuff like this, this is NOT the time.
"For the past few years, a group of Central City residents, property owners, architects, builders, city staff and other stakeholders formed the Alley Activation Committee, meeting regularly to discuss how to transform selected alleyways ..."
When he says "residents," he doesn't mean people who actually live along these "selected alleyways," who are not represented and not considered "stakeholders" at these ongoing meetings.
"Both Drucker and members of the Alley Activation Committee have spoken directly to all property owners on this pilot alley, and they have been notified of public hearings on the Drucker project."
"Both Drucker and members of the Alley Activation Committee" makes it sound as if Drucker is not both Drucker AND a member of the Alley Activation Committee.
Jeremy Drucker, as developer of Stitch has made outreach efforts to neighborhood organizations and to neighbors directly adjacent to his proposed 1717 Capitol condominium project. The Alley Activation Committee (of which Jeremy is co-Chair) has presented to various groups.
However, the Alley Activation Committee has done zero outreach to residential neighbors on the alleys they have targeted for "Residential Alley" pilot projects. It's not true that "the Alley Activation Committee have spoken directly to all property owners on this pilot alley."
That is, unless Mr. Cohn means only the property owners who also happen to be members of the Alley Activation Committee; the property owners who claim to be studying almost 50 potential alleys for activation, while focusing and devoting (City) resources to those alleys where they own and/or develop property.
Other property owners and existing residents, most of whom are renters, just don't figure in the plans or priorities of the Alley Activation Committee. On September 3, 2008, Julie Young and Ron Vrilakas made a presentation on the Alley Activation Initiative before the city Preservation Commission. One of the commissioners asked them when they would be engaging the residents of the alleys they were studying, since the committee had been working for several months with no residents represented. The answer was that it would happen at some point in the future. Still hasn't.
To this day, the Alley Activation Committee isolates itself from the community that it is purporting to be a part of. Evidenced by the fact that there have not been any monthly public meetings since the September announcement of the $100,000 CDBG windfall and yet the work goes on (avoiding an official decision about which alleys are the pilot alleys).
Pilot Alley b/w 18th and 19th Streets:
Julie Young, Alley Activation Committee Chair and former employee of developer Mike Heller (partner with Ron Friedman on the East End Lofts, architect Ron Vrilakas), owns the property next to Dragonfly, where she and partner Linda Clifford, the chief financial officer at C.C. Myers Inc., plan to build condos, with architect Ron Vrilakas. Next door, Ron Vrilakas, architect of Zocalo, owns two alley condos he built behind Zocalo, in the building he owns and where he has offices.
Pilot Alley b/w 17th and 18th Streets:
Jeremy Drucker, developer of the Stitch project (architect Ron Vrilakas), purchased the 1/3 lot on the back of 1717 Capitol, owned and "renovated" by Zocalo owner, Ernesto Jimenez, (architect Ron Vrilakas), across the alley from Old Soul Co. (architect Ron Vrilakas). Aaron Zeff owns property adjacent to the "Restaurant Alley" and owns the Priority Parking lot in the "Residential Alley" which Mr. Cohn is now calling the "Pedestrian First" alley.
The Alley Activation concept has support and potential for community benefits. However, this is a "Developer First" attitude: self-selected stakeholders excluding the public from a process that benefits them privately and profitably, using City staff and public funds.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
The process of expenditure of the CDBG funds and the process of Alley Activation have excluded the public that they are supposedly intended to serve. The Alley Activation Committee was assigned by the City to study over 45 potential alleys and chose the ones where they have real estate and businesses and incestuous relationships with each other and City Hall.
And somehow it all comes back to illegally developed, media-darlinged, crony-favored, powerfully backed, politically protected and mysteriously exempt from laws, Old Soul Co.
My suggestion for naming it is "Crony Alley."
Jeeze, folks...Old Soul's got a looooong way to go before they can be righteously acused of corporate greed. What, is it a slow complaint day?
What's changed is the inflated sense of ENTITLEMENT that appears now; by those who somehow think it's their RIGHT to break the laws, that are in place to benefit the whole community.