The Richmond City Council approved a Letter of Intent Friday that would allow the creation of a regional park at Point Molate.
Audience members at the meeting erupted into cheers as the council approved the letter by a 5-0 vote, with two members absent: District 6 Councilmember Claudia Jimenez and District 4 Councilmember Soheila Bana.
The approval sets up a purchase and sale agreement to transfer the 81.56-acre property to East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) for $40 million.
Colin Coffey, a member of the EBRPD Board of Directors, spoke on behalf of the district during the public comment session, saying land transfer would allow the development of the “world-class crown jewel of shoreline parks in the Bay Area.”
The prospective deal, made possible by a $36 million state grant, would relieve Richmond of maintenance costs and environmental remediation responsibilities. The city would waive its share of sale proceeds in exchange for these benefits.
The EBRPD and the California State Coastal Conservancy must now also approve the letter of intent. The next EBRPD meeting will be held on Tuesday, and the next coastal conservancy meeting is expected to take place in the first week of September.
According to City Attorney David Alshire, Friday’s special meeting, which as a special meeting didn’t require the same public notice period as a regularly scheduled meeting, was necessary to meet a deadline to place the item on the Coastal Conservancy’s September meeting’s agenda, which is released 30 days prior to the meeting.
“We want to be authorized to sign the LOI, and we need to then submit the appraisal so that the Coastal Conservancy has two to three weeks to go through the appraisal to post their agenda in the first week of August.”
Alshire said that if everything goes as planned the sale will be finalized sometime in November or early December.
“What we need to do between now and then is go from the Letter of Intent to this specific signed agreement — the purchase sale agreement — and other documents necessary to close the transaction,” he said. “You can see how important this is to everybody on this short notice.”
Point Molate, a 290-acre site with a rich history dating back to ancient Native American settlements, has been the subject of various development proposals, including a casino project by Guidiville Rancheria in 2004 and a housing development by SunCal Inc. in 2022.
The site is home to the historic Winehaven complex, once the world’s largest winery, and the area was sold to Guidiville Rancheria and Upstream Inc. for $400 in 2022 after previous development deals fell through.
As a result of the $400 sale, Guidiville Rancheria had until 2027 to find a buyer.
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“I think we are in a really good place where we are putting all that negativity behind us with projects that have harm for the planet, environment, future residents and current residents and our finances.”
— City councilmember Gayle McLaughlin
SunCal sued Richmond in the aftermath of the failed 2022 sale and is currently in mediation with the city. The next mediation session is scheduled for August, according to Contra Costa County Superior Court records.
Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin, who represents District 5 and has been on the council since 2004, said the approval of the intent letter signifies the ushering in of a “new era” in Richmond, closing the book on the chaotic insecurity which hovered over Point Molate since the Navy relinquished control of the land in 1995.
“I myself have been involved with Point Molate and its future for the last 20 years,” she said. “Because of the $36 million state grant to the park district, we now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This regional park and its amenities will provide environmental, cultural, historic and recreational benefits.”
Coffey also indicated that the EBRPD Board of Directors would likely approve the Letter of Intent.
“I can predict that it will be approved unanimously by our board on Tuesday, and we will move on as has been suggested to close this deal by the end of the year,” he said. “The fun starts when we get to design — all of us, everyone in this room — with our planners.”
McLaughlin pushed back at former Mayor Tom Butt’s assertions in his email forum that the city would open itself up to millions of dollars in litigation.
“This situation is going to be a situation where the park district indemnifies the city in the remediation and all of the taking of the property into their hands,” McLaughlin told Richmondside after the vote. “I think we are in a really good place where we are putting all that negativity behind us with projects that have harm for the planet, environment, future residents and current residents and our finances.”
I’m not sure this was the best deal for the city, long-term. The problem with Point Molate is poor access, which is restricted by the presence of the Chevron refinery. But that refinery won’t always be there. With the world rapidly transitioning from fossil fuels, the Chevron board of directors may wake up a decade from now with their stock price plunging and decide the most profitable course is to shutter the refinery and develop the land for housing, etc. This could have made the city’s land much more valuable, especially the Winehaven site. Nothing against a shoreline park, but the city’s tax base might have benefited from setting aside a portion of the land for future, post-refinery development.
If the problem is poor access, compare the use of a park to any other plan that was ever on the table. A park plan beats a casino or housing for that. A pie-in-the-sky idea about Chevron shutting down requires showing how and when Chevron will be shutting down, but this isn’t happening.