Railyard project heads to council

The Sacramento City Planning Commission on Tuesday gave the downtown railyard development a conditional seal of approval.

The commission voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council approve the project. But it also voted to draft a letter expressing concern about a variety of issues that it wants to make sure the City Council addresses.

The letter will ask the City Council to make sure affordable housing is spread throughout the project rather than concentrated in a single area. It will also ask that the City Council take a harder look at developer Thomas Enterprises' decisions to turn Fifth and Seventh streets into one-way thoroughfares so they can move more traffic.

One of the commission's other significant concerns was making sure the city does not focus so much attention on the railyard development that it fails to follow through on plans to build a $300 million transit center serving buses and trains in the railyard – a project that is moving on a separate track.

The City Council is scheduled to hold the first of three hearings on the railyard next Tuesday. A vote on the project could come as soon as Dec. 11.

A standing-room-only crowd Tuesday night squeezed into the former City Council chambers at historic City Hall to watch as planning commissioners deliberated the long-awaited development, which would double the size of Sacramento's downtown.

While the vision for the railyard is sweeping and grand, the discussion became very technical and detailed as commissioners and members of the audience honed in on the fine points peppered throughout hundreds of pages of planning documents that were undergoing revision as recently as Friday.

Suheil Totah, vice president of developer Thomas Enterprises, said it was time for the railyard development to move into the action phase, despite some concern expressed by members of the audience that the approval process was being rushed.

"This project has been like many chapters in a book. ... We just need the opportunity to move to the next chapter of this great project we're trying to bring to the city of Sacramento," he said.

While commissioners took care to endorse the railyard project overall, some raised issues with certain aspects of it.

Barry Wasserman, a former state architect, questioned the appropriateness of placing two high-rise hotel resort buildings on the Sacramento River.

Thomas Enterprises development director Richard Rich said his firm is planning for a future time when Sacramento's riverfront will be ready for "a major international resort."

Some speakers raised concerns related to the ongoing dispute between developer Thomas Enterprises and the state Department of Parks and Recreation over whether a planned museum of railroad technology should occupy one or two of the historic railroad shops.

Historian William Burg complained that a last-minute change to language in the plan eliminated specific references to the rail transfer table and a turntable, which are needed by the museum to move its trains.

"Without track access, these buildings are not usable as a rail museum. The transfer table becomes a toy and the turntable becomes a merry-go-round," he said.

Commissioners said they were satisfied that more general language in the agreement between the city and Thomas Enterprises would require the firm to make track access available.

The inclusion of affordable housing in the railyard was also a topic of considerable discussion. Thomas Enterprises was initially seeking relief from some aspects of the city's affordable housing policy, but has now agreed to follow it. That means 15 percent of the 12,000 housing units planned for the railyard would have to be affordable.

Even with this pledge, commissioners asked the City Council to make sure the units are spread throughout the project and not bunched together.

"I really don't want to see whole buildings that are (affordable)," Wasserman said. "I really believe they should be dispersed."

Builder Johann Otto, president of the River District, which is adjacent to the railyard in the Richards Boulevard area, said there is already an excessive concentration of the poor in the area surrounding the railyard, which can make it hard to attract new residents.

Some of those who spoke worried that the city, already in financial straits, would not be able to successfully shoulder a giant project like the railyard.

Rail advocate Richard Tolmach said the railyard "could easily become the next major embarrassment for Sacramento."

But Dennis Boyd, general manager of Sieman Building Technologies, asked the commissioners to "hear the silent majority in this city" that is enthused about the railyard project and eager for it to go forward.

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