THE RAILYARDS IS A GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Night the City Council Unanimously Approved the Railyards. It was quite the moment. Afterwards we all went out and drank with the members of the City Council and toasted the end of what has been a long process. On a personal note, this means no more sleepovers at the office for a while.

Here is a link (12/11 - City Council Approves Downtown Railyard Project) to the video on Fox News. I appear in the audience at the 2:09 mark, sitting behind Jeff.

Here is the article from the Sacramento Bee

Railyard project OK'd by council
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - mlvellinga@sacbee.com
December 12, 2007

The Sacramento City Council set the table Tuesday for the transformation of the dormant downtown railyard into a major entertainment, shopping and residential district by unanimously approving the plan of developer Thomas Enterprises for the 240 acres.

Members of the audience gave the council a standing ovation after the vote, which caps months of frenzied work on the railyard plan and years of frustrated dreams and failed development attempts.

Over the next 20 years, if it builds out as planned, the railyard will sprout more than 10,000 housing units, avenues lined with stores and upstairs apartments, office towers, hotels, a public market and a cultural and entertainment district centered around the historic railroad shops.

It will create 19,000 permanent jobs and inject $2.7 billion into Sacramento's economy, according to a study commissioned by the city.

"A lot of times people criticize the city, and us … as lacking the capacity to do something big and powerful and grand. I think after we do this tonight we can say, 'OK, here you go. Be careful what you wish for,' " said Councilman Rob Fong.

"Our understanding is that this is one of the largest undeveloped infill projects in the United States," said Mayor Heather Fargo. "Very few cities have 240 acres right next to their downtown."

But the table, while set, is still full of empty plates.

Now the city and Thomas Enterprises have to go out and hunt the food: hundreds of millions of dollars to provide streets, sewers, utilities and other improvements needed to turn a dusty, weed-dotted field into an unprecedented extension of downtown.

"Are we going to build it? Time will tell," said Councilman Steve Cohn. "There's a lot left to do."

The next major step is for the city and Thomas Enterprises to apply jointly for money from Proposition 1C, the state housing bond. They hope to get $150 million over the next three years to help defray the $745 million cost of infrastructure in the railyard. The first application is due in February, Fargo said.

The city has committed $159 million to the project, a combination of redevelopment funds, parking fees and other pots of money.

Most will be generated by the development itself – in the form of higher property taxes, for example. Fees on private development will shoulder a large portion of the burden as well.

In recent days, the city has pressed Thomas Enterprises to build more housing early in the plan.

The developer now is required to build 1,000 housing units in the first 10 years of the project, compared with about 400 the developer originally proposed. If Thomas Enterprises doesn't deliver, it risks losing its development entitlements for the project.

"We might have been able to get 1C money anyway, but this community wants to see housing," Fargo said.

Before the vote, a parade of interest groups continued to take cracks at the development, a pattern that's persisted as the development proposal moved through myriad public meetings in recent months.

Advocates for a Chinese center and garden pressed unsuccessfully for a pledge that it be built near the train depot where Chinatown once stood. Others pressed for more housing early on.
One former critic was all smiles, however.

Thomas Enterprises and the California Department of Parks and Recreation signed a formal agreement Tuesday ending their feud over the size of a future Museum of Railroad Technology.

Cohn urged everyone to stop quibbling and get behind the city's effort.

"We've got to quit the bickering and work together to get it done," he said.

While the tone of the meeting generally was congratulatory, one testy exchange erupted when lawyer Patrick Soluri, representing Downtown Plaza owner Westfield, challenged the adequacy of the city's environmental review for the project.

Soluri said the city's description of the project is "overly vague and shifting," and would not require the developer to build the more than 10,000 housing units promised.

He said Thomas Enterprises could "build a regional shopping mall and walk away without ever doing the residential units."

Soluri's comments brought an outraged response from council members, who noted that Westfield has moved aggressively – including filing lawsuits – to quash potential competition to Downtown Plaza, but has allowed the downtown center to deteriorate while investing the bulk of its resources in the Roseville Galleria, which it also owns.

"Westfield has spent $250 million in Roseville. When was the last time they spent a dime downtown?" asked Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell.

"They've never done anything downtown before," said Councilman Robbie Waters. "They just go to Roseville and try to keep the competition down."

Soluri said he couldn't say whether Westfield intended to sue the city if it adopted the plan for the railyard, which includes enough retail to fill a large shopping mall, although it would be built along streets rather than under one roof.