Letter to the Editor: What Does Hercules Want to Be?

-By Resident Toni Leance

The question for Hercules and its citizens is what does Hercules want to be? The time to answer it is now before it is too late to change. There are some, including the Mayor and City Manger, who want the city to remain a ‘bedroom’ community with the typical housing and retail all accessed by car. There are others who have a more urban approach to planning. Who want mixed use projects that allow for pedestrian access and minimize the use of the car.

The problem now is that the people who want suburban sprawl are in control and by the time those who have a different position are able to run for office it will be too late to change.

Mayor Romero said let us not think that the planning commission will become the tool to turn down these projects thus taking away any semblance of independence for this planning commission. The council chose the weaker of the candidates for the planning commission, further eroding the commission’s power.

Steve Duran has named Liz Warmerdam as planning director, at a time when the city’s general plan and housing element will be rewritten to include this suburban mindset. Both Parcel C and Victoria Crescent are zoned for commercial not residential and will require both zoning changes and housing element changes to have them move forward, by naming Liz as planning director Duran is insuring his “vision” will be followed. Again there was no outreach for other applicants for this position. Both council and city hall are stacking the deck in their favor to insure these controversial parcels are developed as they see fit with very little input from the public. The requests for Townhall meetings have fallen on deaf ears.

Hercules will now become a suburban city like its neighbors Pinole, San Pablo, Richmond, Rodeo etc. Is that what the majority really wants? Is the financial “emergency” being used to push a suburban agenda that the citizens rejected with a series of charettes and meetings to establish a new urban town plan?  Do we really want to be known for a Safeway and a Jumbotron LED blinking sign at our entrance? Citizens need to speak up and need to tell the council what they want for Hercules, not just for now, but for the future. They need to come to meetings and voice their opinion before it is too late.

Otherwise you will have gated apartments, gas stations; big box retail and Billboard LED signs and Hercules will be ordinary instead of extraordinary.

*Send your letters to the editor to laila.kearney@patch.com