DID YOU KNOW Homes at Docktown Are Being Stripped of their Value?

Redwood City residents should be appalled not only are they having to pay substantial sums to purchase homes at Docktown that should have been available to live in for other Redwood City residents but Overland Pacific & Cutler (OPC), the "relocation" company that represents the city, staff are informing sellers that they can strip homes. Two weeks ago during the January 8th, 2018 city council meeting, Redwood City residents were basically informed that the city planned to auction off the homes to recoup as much as possible of what they paid residents to move out.

Sounds half-way logical; but the process followed so far is not supported by their actions, nor promises made in the past. In addition to the OPC practices mentioned above, the City's approach so far is inconsistent with officials own words. City official recently said the homes will be (1) sold at auction, (2) given away, or (3) crushed, and that Docktown residents will have an opportunity to bid on the homes they surrendered to the City. But Docktown residents that asked to be informed of plans to sell the homes and given an opportunity to bid on them are not receiving promised updates.

Full disclosure when a beautiful sailboat that I have sailed on was acquired and towed out of Docktown I asked to purchase it and was told by Assistant City Manager, Aaron Aknin, that I would have to wait to get any information including pricing as the property would be auctioned off. I then asked to be informed of any sales of any properties being sold at Docktown and have yet to hear another word.

Meanwhile at Mission Creek in San Francisco, where not that long ago twenty floating homes out of twenty floating homes were grandfathered, floating home owners are getting private invitations to inspect the Docktown properties and reportedly make sealed offers on them. Why would it not surprise me if the auction window turned out to be extremely short. Or could it be that some buyers, but not Docktown residents and the general public, will be allowed to make early offers and have those offers accepted? By allowing stripping of these homes, OPC has insured that the City of Redwood City will recoup pennies on the dollar.

Regardless of whether early offers are accepted or the properties actually end up being auctioned off, the fact is that the properties that visitors are seeing are not what the city bought. Appliances are mostly gone, interiors are stripped, ballast and balance is no longer in evidence. A number of the properties today appear to be listing (as in leaning and not floating straight) effectively reducing their value to buyers.

This past week I got the chance to speak to a couple of owners of floating homes at Mission Creek, who were checking out the homes at Docktown as an option to upgrading their existing floating homes. That is how nice some of the homes in Docktown were in comparison to existing legally grandfathered floating homes in Mission Creek in San Francisco. As one visitor explained, he was told that they would be auctioned without any kind of a reserve price namely if the final auction amount was $10 then that was what they would sell for. Homes that the city just paid over a million dollars for.

First of all, OPC’s contract with the city should be renegotiated and maybe even terminated as they are not operating in the best interests of Redwood City residents. As regards OPC, there are a lot more issues than just this one as residents pointed out in the last council meeting and may be the focus of another blog post. In addition, Redwood City staff should not be allowing anyone else to preview properties until the judge rules in the current CEQA case in San Mateo Superior Court. But we already know they won’t do that, as they clearly stated so in the last council meeting. However if they can’t wait for the court they should at least be fair and give the general public including Docktown residents the same rights and options.

Blog sent via email to council@redwoodcity.org cc: aaknin@redwoodcity.org