Heated Pleasant Hill Council Meeting Shines Light on Changing Politics of Housing as Martinez Finalizes Its Plan

Also, the latest on fishing pier restoration project, Rankin pool equipment upgrades, refinery investigation, mercury spill cleanup, Sturgeon baseball season and waterfront planning

I’m starting this post with news from our neighbor next door, Pleasant Hill, because it holds important significance for Martinez, both geographically and politically.

A marathon special Pleasant Hill City Council meeting on Thursday to take another crack at adopting a Housing Element that will pass muster with the state devolved into a storm of protest and acrimony. Residents from the Paso Nogal area of the city packed the meeting to oppose the designation of two vacant parcels near the Martinez border for high-density, low-income housing (there is no actual proposal to build housing on the parcels; the designations simply make it possible at some point).

As the Martinez Planning Commission prepares to meet Tuesday evening to take up the city’s own overdue Housing Element and consider moving the draft plan onto the City Council for adoption, what happened last week in Pleasant Hill serves as a cautionary tale and clear evidence that the political terrain around housing policy in the state has shifted in a major way.

Pleasant Hill’s amended Housing Element for the 2023-31 cycle now allows for 298 low-income units on the Paso Nogal and Morello Terraces hillside sites. City Council members made clear both before and after the hours of impassioned public comment that they did not want to see housing on the privately owned hillside slopes and didn’t believe they were an appropriate place for it. But their hands were tied, because the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) had already rejected the city’s first proposed Housing Element and implemented strict requirements for approval that left the city no choice but to make the parcels in question available to potential housing.

That didn’t stop the residents from lambasting the City Council for not doing things that it apparently has no power to do under new state laws meant to deal with the housing crisis. With the council chamber packed, overflow seating was set up in adjacent community rooms for the public to watch the proceedings on video monitors (not to mention those following at home on Zoom). Even before public comment began, Mayor Tim Flaherty explained that state mandates, and HCD’s rejection of its initial proposal, had boxed the city into corner, with no alternative but to grudgingly open up the parcels to potential housing.

Thursday’s packed Pleasant Hill City Council meeting lasted over five hours.

But the public wasn’t buying it. They pleaded with the city to negotiate the matter with the state (Flaherty explained the city had no capacity to negotiate under state law); to ask for help from state Assemblyman Tim Grayson (Flaherty explained he had reached out to Grayson’s office, which had responded that the assemblyman had no legislative leverage over HCD on the issue); to put previously considered parcels such as the closed JC Penney home store and the Diablo Valley College overflow parking lot back on the table (he explained that HCD had already declared them insufficient to meet the requirements of the Housing Element).

More than one public commenter urged the council to “slow down” and take a “pause” before rushing to pass the Element, notwithstanding the fact that the city (like Martinez) has already failed to meet the state-mandated deadline for approval and certification of its Element and is being sued by housing nonprofits over that failure, as well as longer-term failures to bring affordable housing to town. Others complained about the impact on schools and roads of more residents that will result from more housing, apparently unaware of the fact that cities like Pleasant Hill and Martinez have been actually losing residents in recent years and school districts are struggling not with too many students, but declining enrollment and the negative financial impact that brings, as well as teachers shortages exacerbated by the fact that too few teachers can afford to live in the area based on their salaries.

Throughout it all, Flaherty struggled to control the meeting, and his own frustration, as audience members ignored his pleas to refrain from clapping after comments. Speakers routinely blew past their three-minute time allotment, and audience members engaged in spontaneous commentary during the meeting, drawing reprimands from the mayor. One speaker had staff project a flier onto the overhead screen in the council chamber showing migrants flowing across the southern border, suggesting that they would make a beeline for Paso Nogal. Another showed a PowerPoint documenting all of the city’s failures over the years to get low-income housing built at more appropriate sites. One person tried to get a second turn at the podium, prompting a testing exchange with the mayor. Flaherty was on the verge of calling an end to public comment several times before another person in the chamber or on Zoom asked to speak.

In the end, none of it mattered, and the council members approved the Element with the controversial Paso Nogal/Morello Terraces designations, not because they wanted to, but because they had no choice. Fed up with a housing and homelessness crisis that has spiraled out of control and turned California into the national poster child for NIMBY politics, state legislators have said in effect “enough is enough” and passed a raft of legislation in recent years that severely curtails the ability of cities to stall or reject needed housing, regardless of community pressure. Ten years ago, such a proposed rezoning for Paso Nogal never would have made it into a Housing Element, and if it had, the public pressure on display Thursday would have scuttled it. That is no longer the case.

Why does all of this matter to Martinez and its Housing Element? If HCD rejects Martinez’s plan as insufficient to address the scope of the problem, as it did with Pleasant Hill’s and many other cities, the city may find itself in a position where it also has to make major last-minute revisions that it finds anathema in response to the intense political and legal pressure to achieve certification. Any local pressure to water down measures in the Element designed to achieve meaningful progress on housing growth in Martinez, such as the reservations voiced by the Thousands Friends of Martinez group through its recent newsletter posts, runs the risk of simply bringing to bear greater pressure from the state and housing advocates that are already suing the city over its lack of progress.

Having missed previous Housing Element targets by a mile (to put it mildly), cities like Martinez and Pleasant Hill now find themselves caught in a vice between community interests that want to continue to constrain housing development to the extent possible and state leaders who have made it clear they will not settle for history repeating itself, and are prepared to impose significant financial consequences if it does.

Flaherty acknowledged the new reality before the vote when he said that “when it comes to housing, we’re all victims of the policies of the past, and we have a very active state Legislature that is mandating one thing after another. … There are so many things we had to consider in this Housing Element that have never been considered before. This is all new. … We don’t have discretion; we don’t have the ability to go back and negotiate.”

Trying yet again to get that reality across to the angry residents in the chamber and on Zoom who seemed to expect the city to pull an alternate low-income housing rabbit out of its hat, Flaherty added, “What I’m hearing from everybody here is to say go do what we already did. We gave the designation for the lands that we thought were appropriate, and HCD rejected them; and not only rejected them but told us where we needed to fix it, and it was move low-income housing to vacant land in the western portion of your town. That didn’t give us lots of choices."

Many at the Pleasant Hill meeting complained about being blindsided by the designation of Paso Nogal/Morello Terraces for high-density housing on such short notice, but as Flaherty tried to explain again largely in vain, this resulted from HCD’s rejection of its original plan, and the urgency to get its Housing Element certified ASAP given the intense state and legal pressure it is facing and prospect of penalties that could result from further delays.

Whether the new state pressure on Martinez, Pleasant Hill and other cities in the state to ramp up housing development through their Housing Elements ultimately solves, or even makes a dent, in the crisis remains to be seen. Housing Elements don’t mandate that housing be built anywhere; that ultimately depends on the willingness and interest of property owners and developers. They’re designed to simply create the framework for such housing to be built if the economic and development stars align.

But one thing is not in doubt based on what transpired during the five-and-a-half-hour Pleasant Hill meeting last week. The days of residents being able to pack a council meeting and easily shoot down efforts to build housing simply because they don’t want it near them are over. Sacramento has made that crystal clear.

And as much as city leaders and residents may be tempted to point the finger at one another, or more likely at state legislators, for what happened with Paso Nogal and Morello Terraces, it might be worth reflecting on how we got to this point to begin with.

The thing with crises such as the current one with housing is that desperate circumstances often bring about intense pressure for bold solutions. Politicians in a state facing widespread hypocrisy, and mockery, over their claims to be champions of the marginalized and disadvantaged, while failing for decades to provide sufficient housing for those very groups, have clearly grown desperate for a way out of this mess. Whether such desperation ultimately succeeds, only time will tell.

Watch the Pleasant Hill meeting here.

Martinez Fishing Pier restoration project begins

Back in Martinez, the City Council on Wednesday allocated $150,000 to “jump-start” planning for the Martinez Fishing Pier restoration project, but it was made clear that this is a project likely to take awhile.

The city has received roughly $2.5 million in federal funds to renovate the faltering fishing pier, one of the few on the Carquinez Straight. After it was closed in September 2021 because of safety concerns, temporary repairs were undertaken to allow for a partial reopening.

The $150,000 allocated Wednesday will go toward an environmental assessment of the work to be done and obtaining professional permitting assistance.

Staff made clear that the permitting process for this process is complex, with many regulatory agencies involved in the ultimate approval of the project. City Manager Michael Chandler said a one-year time frame for the renovation is a “best-case scenario” but later clarified that it is “very unlikely” that the project will be completed that soon.

He did express optimism that the relationships developed with regulatory officials during the temporary repairs will facilitate and expedite the process.

Rankin Aquatic Center update

With the summer swimming season around the corner, Assistant City Manager Lauren Sugayan expressed optimism that some of the equipment problems that plagued the Rankin pool complex last year have been successfully addressed.

In particular, the city has invested in a new chlorine-management system that Sugayan called a “game-changer.”

“We had a lot of pool closures last year because our system was outdated,” she said.

The city has also invested $463,000 in a new pool-heater system that will be installed in the fall.

The pool is scheduled to open to the general public on June 10.

Refinery investigation update

The county-led Martinez Refining Co. Oversight Committee held its latest meeting on Thursday to receive updates on the collection and testing of soil samples related to the refinery’s Thanksgiving night “spent catalyst” release of heavy metal-laden dust into the community. The video of the meeting can be viewed here. Consultant TRC is taking the samples and testing them for concentrations of metals such as aluminum and chromium that are commonly found in spent catalyst.

Deputy Contra Costa County Health Director Matt Kaufman explained that the initial soil sample results will only be the “first piece” of a comprehensive process to try to determine any long-term health and environmental impacts from the release. The lab results will need to be validated and the numbers them crunched into a “risk assessment” model that will compare the levels of metals found against benchmark standards and background levels expected to be found in California.

“It’s not necessarily the sample results we’re looking for,” Kaufmann said. “It’s taking those results, validating them and putting them into a risk assessment model and getting a report from TRC to really explain to us what all of these numbers mean in terms of the health impacts that may have resulted from the release.”

Martinez Unified School District Trustee Courtney Masella-O’Brien, a member of the board’s newly created ad hoc committee exploring the refinery release, addressed the oversight committee during public comment, pointing out that six MUSD schools are within a mile and a half of the refinery.

“I know our board and community members, teachers, parents, are very concerned about student safety and would like to have further discussions and look at having all of the school sites tested,” she said.

A site near Las Juntas Elementary School was previously added to the list of testing sites, to go along with testing near Martinez Junior High School, where the spent catalyst dust was visibly observed by a county inspector after the release.

Initial sample results are expected by late May or early June. The next oversight committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for June 8.

Health advisory for mercury spill lifted

Contra Costa Health Services on Tuesday lifted its health advisory for the mercury spill affecting parts of downtown Martinez. County hazardous materials crews completed a cleanup of spilled mercury that contaminated the Amtrak station and some surrounding streets.

“At no point did we detect enough mercury on city streets to cause an immediate health concern. The primary concern was reducing the risk of people tracking it inside, where over time it could cause health issues,” Dr. Ori Tzvieli, Contra Costa County’s health officer, said in a news release. "We realize the work has been disruptive to the community and appreciate the partnership of the city of Martinez as we worked to keep people informed about our progress.”

Sturgeon season kicks off

After two preseason games at Waterfront Park this weekend, the Martinez Sturgeon professional baseball team plays the Dublin Leprechauns next Sunday (May 28) in its regular season home opener. First pitch is 2 p.m.

“We know Martinez has a fine history within the game of baseball, and we aim to make the folks of Martinez proud,” Sturgeon Manager Matt Repplinger told freelance writer David Scholz. “Professional baseball (while not the major leagues) has gifted athletes and highly skilled baseball players that will impress you day in day out.

“They are doing their absolute best to make it up the ranks of the minor leagues with the dream of one day being a major leaguer.”

Repplinger, a Denver native who founded, managed and played for the Denver Browns semipro team, succeeds Manny Corpas, who guided the Sturgeon to a 19-31 record last season.

The Sturgeon play in the Pacific Division of the 16-team Pecos League, with opponents in Marysville, San Rafael, Vallejo, Dublin, Monterey, Bakersfield and Lancaster.

Scholz’s complete story on the Sturgeon, including photos, will be posted later this week for paid subscribers.

All games are played at Martinez Waterfront Park, 1204 Joe DiMaggio Drive. For schedule and ticket information, go to martinezsturgeon.com

Big waterfront meeting scheduled for Wednesday

This will be a big week for meetings on two of the top issues facing the city. After Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting on the Housing Element that starts at 7 p.m., Wednesday will feature a joint meeting among the City Council, Planning Commission and Parks, Recreation, Marina & Cultural Commission (PRMCC) on the Waterfront Master Plan, starting at 6 p.m. Information on both meetings and the agendas can be found at https://www.cityofmartinez.org/government/meetings-and-agendas