East Bay city restarts plans to turn its marina to 500-unit development

The East Bay city of San Leandro has reignited plans for a nearly 500-unit redevelopment of its former marina after the housing project had been delayed because of the pandemic.

Council members signaled earlier this month that they would be supporting the project, the East Bay Times reported. The proposed development consists of 285 apartments and 200 townhouses, with a local preference for those living in San Leandro.

San Leandro and Cal-Coast Development had reached an agreement in 2020 for the project, but it stalled due to the pandemic. Now it’s once again picking up steam, with the public hearings for the project to be held in the coming months and a council vote likely to happen in the summer.

“San Leandro is working to transform the northern portion of our waterfront, providing a range of amenities for the whole community,” Katie Bowman, the city’s economic development manager, said to the publication in an email.

The development also consists of a 210-room hotel, a market, retail stores, a nine-acre park with access to the waterfront for water vehicles without motors and a nine-hole golf course. The city will consult with the community before completing plans for the park. Development west of Monarch Bay Drive will be raised several feet to account for rising sea levels.

Of the townhouses, 21 of them will be affordable, with 13 to be sold to families earning no more than $169,560, which is 135 percent of the area median income. The remaining eight will be for families earning no more than $150,720, 120 percent of the area median income.

The city began looking into developing the area in 2008 when it lost federal funding to dredge the channel that leads to the marina while not having enough money to pay for it either. The city decided to dismantle the docks to make way for housing. An environmental review was done in 2015 to ensure Monarch butterflies that migrate to the area in the winter are protected.

“It’s been many years, but [we’ve been] really working along a continual road, paving the way for the steps that we’re taking,” Bowman had told the council.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has set a goal of zoning for 2.5 million homes by 2030, at least 1 million of which must be affordable. A report from the Department of Housing and Community Development found cities built fewer than half the 1.2 million goal of the previous eight-year cycle.

[East Bay Times] — Gabriel Poblete

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