RICHMOND – After years of failed planning and legal fights, some of which are ongoing, Richmond’s Point Molate could soon become part of the East Bay Regional Park District following a $40 million deal negotiated between the city, parks district and Guidiville Tribe.
The Richmond City Council on Friday vote 5-0, with Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez and Councilmember Soheila Bana both absent, to approve the deal during a special meeting. If all hurdles are cleared, the parks district will take ownership of 81.6 acres of Point Molate, a former U.S. Navy fuel storage and transfer site located on the San Pablo Peninsula not far from the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
“We all together are going to develop a world class, crown jewel of shoreline parks in the Bay Area, I have no doubt of that,” EPRPD Board Member Colin Coffey said. “The fun starts when we get to design, all of us, everyone in this room, a world class park with our planners.”
The park district’s board of directors plan to vote on the deal on Tuesday, Coffey said. The California Coastal Coastal Conservancy is then expected to weigh in this September, with escrow closing sometime in November or early December, depending on the agency’s decision, Richmond City Attorney David Aleshire said.
A $36 million state grant will be used to purchase the property for $40 million. Under a previous agreement, the sale revenue would’ve been split evenly between the city and tribe. But the council agreed to give up the city’s $20 million share after the tribe’s negotiating team said the land was worth more than $50 million and argued the entities could get more from a developer, Aleshire said.
Ultimately, Aleshire said, relinquishing the city’s cut enabled the deal to go through, bringing to fruition a long-held dream of the council and some community members for the land to be preserved as public open space. The deal also puts an end to various maintenance and security costs and a litigious relationship with the Ukiah-based tribe, Aleshire added.
The tribe sued the city in 2012 after plans to develop a mega-casino complex were rejected both by Richmond voters and the City Council. A federal judge formally nixed the casino plan in a 2018 court ruling. But a settlement agreement allowed the Guidiville Tribe of Pomo Indians and its developer, Upstream Point Molate LLC, to purchase the land for $400.
Under the agreement, the tribe had a total of five years to find a developer to purchase the land before it returned to city ownership. Three years remain before that time elapses, but Aleshire said another development proposal could mean more legal battles for the city and it’s unclear whether a deal like the one put before the council would still be available down the road.
“It’s remarkable that in two years we’ve been able to accomplish this but it has been, certainly, a challenge,” Aleshire said Friday.
Before the vote, former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt criticized the deal, saying the City Council was “depriving” the city of $20 million and that “Point Molate remains off limits indefinitely to the public except for the beach park.”
There is “no plan, schedule or funding for improvements required to open up Point Molate as a park,” Butt wrote Thursday in his emailed newsletter.
The city’s legal troubles over the land are not over. A lawsuit filed against the city by Winehaven Legacy LLC., a Delaware-based development company that sought to build 1,450 homes and 400,000 square feet of commercial space in the area, drags on. The company’s 2020 proposal also called for rehabilitating historic structures in the the 47-acre Winehaven Historic District, recognized at the state and federal level as the largest winery in the U.S. before Prohibition.
Winehaven Legacy claims they were unable to obtain necessary financing because the city stalled the project, according to legal filings. Aleshire said the developer failed to provide updated financial plans requested by the council that proved the project wouldn’t have had a negative impact on the city’s general fund, giving the council grounds for denying the project.
Winehaven Legacy attempted to stall the most recent deal with the park district by seeking an injunction but were unsuccessful in court, Aleshire said.
They were also dealt an earlier legal blow. The City Council’s 2020 approval of the environmental review was successfully challenged in court, meaning Winehaven Legacy would have had to go through the rigorous process all over again, even before Friday’s vote to eventually turn Point Molate into parkland.
Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin, a longtime supporter of retaining Point Molate as public open space, lauded those who “fought long and hard” to bring that dream to life. The deal, she said, will save the city millions in the future while providing the community with educational and recreational opportunities, and improving and preserving the local environment.
“We can now put all the chaos behind us as we usher in a new era,” McLaughlin said.
