Newark's latest housing approval will harm current and future residents

On Dec. 10, 2015, Newark City Council gave their unanimous approval to 386 homes, an elementary school and park next to the Ohlone College, Newark campus. This project is the first part of the Area 3 & 4 project that at its conclusion will bring 1,000+ homes, half of which will be built next to the shoreline and over irreplaceable marshland.

In March, I warned City Council of the folly in destroying the city’s wetland and marshland. Area 3 and 4 serve as a sponge to prevent sea level rise from climate change and annual events such as the king tides. The latter phenomena temporarily raises sea level several feet and occurs annually from November to January.

One proposed mitigation strategy calls for 1 to 2 million cubic yards of fill to raise the level of the site. But the weight of additional fill accelerates ground settlement, thus any gains to raise elevation will eventually be lost over time. Proposed mitigations also fail to address the inevitability of earthquakes promoting liquefaction conditions below these new homes. These liabilities will hang forever over the City and those who move into these homes. Who will pay for displacement and property loss sustained by these future residents?

Evening peak hour traffic on Cherry Street is already a maddening bumper-to-bumper affair, as the street serves as a popular bypass street for the constantly gridlocked Interstate 880. In the last traffic study, traffic at the Mowry and Cherry intersection was given a D grade. With 386 units, two drivers per household driving at least four trips per day, this comes out to at least 3,088 additional car trips from just this project.

Recently, Fremont’s school district has faced difficulties finding the $20 million necessary to construct a new elementary school near Ardenwood. Newark’s school district is expected to receive about $3 million from this project and $12 million may come from other housing projects around the city. However, Newark Unified Superintendent Dave Marken has admitted that Newark’s schools were around $83 million behind in maintenance needs. Therefore, to build the elementary school, some maintenance will be delayed even further.

The development agreement also allows the landowner to unload 66 acres of land with costly issues ranging from toxics clean-up, wetland replacement, complications from a necessary railroad overcrossing, criminal activity monitoring and more. This “donation” allows the landowner write off the land as a tax write-off, while leaving the City with the bill. With the City already subsidizing the Silliman Center and unable to afford paying to have community recreation programs at the Community Center, how will they pay to resolve these expensive issues?

Unfortunately, the Area 3 & 4 project fails on all marks when it comes to the best interest for current and future city residents. Ultimately, this year’s unanimous approval of housing projects one-after-another at the very least indicate one thing: Newark’s public servants have never seen a development they would refuse to approve.