Cargill developer "myths" debunked

By Stephen Knight, Political Director

Recent blog and Twitter posts by Cargill's Redwood City developer DMB state, "there’s been a lot of misinformation and half-truths being circulated out there."

No kidding.

Openly concerned about the attention being paid to their unprecedented plans to build a new city in the Bay, the increasingly desperate developer is clumsily attempting to erase many simple and inconvenient facts by claiming that they are "myths."

But the evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary.

Did Cargill not tell their Arizona-based development partner these basic facts about their Bay property? You be the judge:

--> Astonishingly, Cargill’s developer claims it is a "myth" that the site "was diked off from tidal action to create salt evaporation ponds." This property is former tidal marsh, diked off from the Bay to make salt. Is there another way to make a salt pond? Just look at this 1943 aerial photograph.

--> DMB says it is a "myth" that site is located within a FEMA flood plain. Apparently they have not seen Redwood City's General Plan. (Redwood City General Plan Map, page BE-54).

--> Cargill's developer refuses to admit that the Redwood City salt ponds are the largest unprotected stretch of restorable bay shoreline because, they say, the site "is privately owned by Cargill." Yet the fact that these salt ponds remain in private ownership defines why they need protection from development.

--> DMB asserts that the current zoning for the site "anticipates future development proposals." In fact, Redwood City's General Plan states of the Cargill salt ponds: "Due to the sensitive nature of these open space areas, it should be assumed that they will remain as open space forever." These salt ponds have never been zoned for housing.

--> Cargill's developer also calls a "myth" the fact that state and federal laws prohibit filling wetlands when alternatives are available. But nobody contests that fact. The US EPA recently called these salt ponds "a critically important aquatic resource that warrant special attention" (EPA letter, Jan. 5, 2010). And Cargill has filed documents with the US Army Corps calling the site "waters of the US" protected by the Clean Water Act.

--> Cargill is running ads on TV and in newspapers telling the Bay Area public that this site is "a century-old industrial facility." Does this look like an industrial facility to you?

--> The developer threatens that the only choice is to approve their massive development, otherwise Cargill will continue making salt. Nobody is telling them not to keep making salt; it is their legal right to do so. But Cargill has already made clear that salt harvesting is no longer economically viable in Redwood City (Paul Shepherd, Cargill Land Manager, letter to Redwood City residents, 2006).

Just as Redwood City voters prevented Bair Island from being developed a generation ago, Cargill’s development must be stopped so that – like Bair Island – it can be added to the Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge and restored to tidal wetlands to benefit people and wildlife.

For more photos and documentation behind the real facts, please visit our Flickr site.

Bay Trail-blazin'

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Good news for Bay Trail users in Richmond! Chevron has agreed to donate 1.5 miles of Bay Trail easements on the western side of the Point San Pablo Peninsula to the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). And last week, the EBRPD Board of Directors voted to accept Chevron's generous donation and appropriated $100,000 for trail alignment engineering, surveying and title costs.

More public access and trail expansion in this area is a welcome addition. With 32 miles of shoreline and 26 miles of Bay Trail now in place, Richmond has more shoreline and more Bay Trail built than any other Bay city – some of it quite stunning and much of it unexplored.

Save The Bay was founded in part to increase public access to the Bay shoreline and nearly 50 years later, we enjoy watching the vision of our founders come to fruition. When complete, the Bay Trail will be a continuous 400-mile recreational corridor that will encircle the entire Bay Area, linking together a necklace of shoreline parks. To date, 240 miles of the Bay Trail, or more than half its ultimate length, have been developed.

Two former Save The Bay board members – Bruce Beyaert and Nancy Strauch – are on the Trails for Richmond Action Committee and have worked tirelessly to advance Bay Trail projects in Richmond and around the Bay. This committee, in addition to Chevron and EBRPD, deserves great kudos for this major step toward completing the San Francisco Bay Trail on the Point San Pablo Peninsula.