Council: BART Path, Police-Fire Dispatch, Hill Street Property

Up for El Cerrito City Council votes tonight are two city pacts with two other public agencies — a 25-year license agreement with BART on using the Ohlone Greenway and a 3-year agreement with Richmond for police and fire dispatch services.

Also on the agenda is a deal to sell the city's corner of the new Safeway parking lot to Safeway for $1.85 million. The property, slightly under an acre in size on the corner of Hill Street and San Pablo Avenue, was acquired by the city when Safeway won approval to develop the former Target site into a new Safeway store.

Ohlone Greenway agreement with BART

The proposed BART agreement would replace the current BART-City pact on the maintenance and operation of the BART-owned portion of Ohlone Greenway. BART owns the portion under the BART tracks and the city owns a portion east of the BART land.

The city and BART entered into a pact in 1986 on joint responsibilities for the BART-owned portion which expires next month.

The new pact does not include the into a single multi-use path under BART's seismic retrofit program set to begin in January, according to the staff report to the council. Agreements regarding the seismic retrofit project were adopted by the council in July 2009, the staff report says. The license agreement up for council approval tonight "relates to future improvements and long-term maintenance along the Ohlone Greenway," the report says.

Under the current and proposed city-BART agreements, the city has responsibility for city facilities on both the BART-owned and city-owned parts of the Greenway, including the bike and pedestrian paths, play areas, parcourse equipment, landscaping, lighting and picnic benches.

The new agreement also obliges the city to treat the BART-owned portion chiefly for "purposes of a mass transit corridor," the staff report says. "As such," the report continues, "the City has to acknowledge and agree that in regards to Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act (DOT Act), the 'pathway is designated by the City as not significant for recreational purposes, and will be utilized as an integral part of the local transportation system.' "

Police and fire dispatch contract

The council is being asked to renew the city's agreement with Richmond to provide police and fire dispatch and communication services.

A agreement stretching back more than 20 years has provided for consolidated police dispatch for the cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, Pinole, San Pablo and Hercules, along with Kensington, and for fire dispatch for Richmond and El Cerrito, according to the staff report for the council.

The proposed new agreement before the council tonight would extend the contract to June 30, 2014.

Since the long-anticipated East Bay Regional Communications System Authority has yet to be implemented, city staff explored opportunities to find other providers of dispatch services but found that "no other agency has the capacity to provide such service at this time," the staff report said.

Hill Street lot sale

The council is also being asked by staff to okay sale of a prime city-owned lot at the corner of Hill Street and San Pablo Avenue to Safeway for $1.85 million.

When Safeway won city approval to convert the old Target store to a new Safeway, the company agreed to convey the .87-acre corner parcel, now being used as part of the new Safeway parking lot, to the city's Redevelopment Agency, according to the staff report to the council.

But because of subsequent state moves to eliminate local Redevelopment Agencies, El Cerrito's Redevelopment Agency agreed to convey its rights to the property to another creature of the city, the El Cerrito Municipal Services Corp., which agreed to development the parcel, the staff report says.

"However," the staff report says, "development will be difficult under current economic conditions."

At the same time, the report says, the city does not have the $1.84 million that it would need to pay the state to keep its Redevelopment Agency, if the state Supreme Court approves the state's Redevelopment Agency reorganization plan. The state abolished local Redevelopment Agencies unless cities agreed to pay extra to keep them, but the move has been blocked by a court challenge. El Cerrito has taken the necessary steps to preserve its option to keep its agency by paying the extra cost, if the high court upholds the state plan. If the court strikes down the state plan, the old Redevelopment Agency could continue operating without the city paying extra.

The resolution before the council tonight says "the City needs to identify funding for its payment to the State to opt into the Voluntary Alternative Redevelopment Program (the "VARP"), should it be found constitutional."

Under the deal, a Safeway subsidiary that develops shopping centers, Property Development Centers, would pay $1.85 million to the Muncipal Development Corp. in cash, according to the staff report.