With the record the city has negotiating development deals, the questions raised by this editorial are important.
Editorial: City Council must probe details of railyard
On Tuesday, council should follow the money and question housing schedule
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, November 30, 2007
As the Sacramento City Council reaches the last stages of decision-making on the railyard project, it's time for the council to move beyond platitudes and drill down into the details of the financing and development agreements.
Any urban infill project is a complicated proposition, and everybody is trying to figure out how to pay for this one. As it stands now, the railyard project would build significant retail space at the beginning – a 200,000-square-foot Bass Pro shop right away – to try to generate revenues. But the council needs to consider the phasing carefully and make sure that the railyard project truly is mixed use and not just a shopping center in the early stages.
Here's one example where the council needs to examine the details. By the end of 2018, the first of four "Development Milestones" calls for the developer to produce 400 units of housing and 550,000 square feet of retail/office space. By comparison, Old Sacramento has about 300,000 square feet of retail.
Are 400 units of housing and half a million square feet of retail/office the right balance by 2018? That first milestone may be too long, allowing retail to happen right away and housing not for 10 years. Redefining the first milestone as five years could better assure that housing occurs simultaneously with retail and office development.
