April 21, 2006

EEHVS task force spends some time in a fishbowl

New facilitation method tried, school district responds and EEHVS gets an award

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff Writer

Negotiations between residents and developers continued to inch along at the April 11 Evergreen East Hills Visioning Strategy Task Force meeting, where a new method for negotiations was tried, called “the fishbowl.”

A group of four from the task force sat in the middle of the room representing a microcosm of the negotiations for the large medium-density residential development of between 4,100 and 5,700 homes, some affordable, some detached and some condos with some possible mixed-use commercial development. There are four plots; one at Pleasant Hills golf course, one part of the Evergreen Community College, one originally zoned for industrial use, and one known as the Arcadia plot.

In the fishbowl, an “artificially positive environment,” as facilitator Kip Harkness put it, was created for different scenarios, and community and development representatives were asked for their opinions. The exercise was introduced, Harkness said, because there were possible Brown Act issues with methods used at the last meeting, where the task force broke out into groups. The purpose of the Brown Act is to ensure the public’s business takes place in public view.

City planning commissioner and Evergreen resident Jim Zito said the group made more visible progress during the breakout exercises in March than the April 11 meeting. After years of negotiations there are still major sticking points.

The biggest one is how many homes will be built, followed by how much industrial property will continue to be zoned for possible commercial use, and how many amenities there will be, such as parks, trails, and schools. Zito is a resident of Evergreen, but not on the task force as a representative of the residents.

The task force was initially presented with a package of amenities worth $235 million, but that has since changed, as negotiations progressed and homes or industrial land were added or subtracted from the deal.

“Everything is contingent on everything,” Zito said. “It’s kind of a house of cards. The main sticking point is the number of units. That’s by far the key issue.”

A high school for the future
The East Side Union School District submitted a letter April 13 to the task force and its chairs, councilmembers David Cortese, chair, and Nora Campos, vice chair. The district is expecting another 1,100 high school students with the new development in the Evergreen area, which the district will be able to handle by re-aligning school boundaries. But that doesn’t mean the district’s already strained resources won’t be strained even more.

“In short, planned development in the Evergreen area and consequent enrollment increases, boundary changes and other absorption measures will have ripple and cumulative effects across the district and will not be limited to those schools in the Evergreen area,” the letter stated, which was signed by school board president J. Manuel Herrera and superintendent Bob Nunez.

As some school boundaries are moved northward, W.C. Overfelt and Mt Pleasant high schools are expected to absorb the biggest hit, while James Lick will be effected as well.

A new high school is planned in 12 to 14 years to absorb the growth in Evergreen and other areas. Land for this school may be obtained during the negotiations, but Zito said it will likely be built on land outside of the area under review by the task force.

Herrera said there seems to be a general agreement about elementary and junior high needs in the development area, but the issue of obtaining land for a high school is now positioning itself as the next school issue to be tackled.

But in the short term school boundaries will have to moved, and it’s going to be upsetting for some neighborhoods, Herrera said.

“We expect it will be a difficult process because usually neighborhoods don’t welcome boundary changes,” he said. “Over time, they develop a strong preference for a school they have traditionally gone through.”

Funding needs to be acquired to “ensure an equity of resources, capacity and appeal for the (high) schools that will be affected the most,” Herrera said.

The task force was expected to wrap in June but there is talk that the deadline will be extended to ensure the task force has a good plan to deliver to the city council.