Golden Gate Fields Joins Race to Become New Berkeley Lab Campus, Proposal Worth Exploring, Officials Say

Several Albany officials said Friday they are open to exploring what it would mean for , located in Albany, to be chosen as the second site of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The two main considerations, they said, revolve around whether the lab would comply with the city's long-term plans for the waterfront called Voices to Vision, and generate revenue that would make up for the loss in taxes.

The El Cerrito City Council meanwhile has thrown its support behind Richmond in the bid to acquire the lab's satellite campus. The to endorse placing it in Richmond.

A site frequently mentioned as a leading candidate for the satellite facility is UC's Richmond Field Station, 152-acre property located just west of Interstate 580 in Richmond. Both sites are close to El Cerrito, with the Richmond property about 1.2 miles from and Golden Gate Fields a bit less than two miles from City Hall.

For Albany, the racetrack brings in more than an estimated $1 million annually, according to limited available data. If selected to become the lab, the property would join and the as large parcels of tax-exempt land in a very small city with a limited economic base.

"We currently get a lot of revenue and property taxes from the racetrack for the city and school district," said . "If it was to become exempt and off the tax rolls, that's a lot of revenue that would have to be made up somehow. In terms of sales tax, may be the top contributor, but Golden Gate Fields is the single largest property. It may be the top revenue contributor for city property taxes."

Javandel said he met with Golden Gate Fields representatives Wednesday, and that he and submitted "a letter of conditional support for the site being evaluated."

The has yet to discuss the possibility, which was largely under wraps until last week, but city officials said Robert Hartman, general manager for Golden Gate Fields, plans to speak briefly during the "Good of the City" comment period at .

According to a 2005 report by Stand Up for California, a gambling watchdog group, the track paid $897,853 to the city, and $349,352 to the schools, in fiscal year 2004-05, the most recent year studied for the report. (At the time, the city's General Fund revenue was $11,209,516; the school district's revenue was not listed, but is significantly higher than the city's.)

The since then, as have the city and school district budgets, but these numbers are the closest publicly available numbers at this time, as far as the potential financial impact on Albany.

The laboratory announced its Request for Qualifications in January for 2 million square feet of laboratory, office and support space, including a 3,000-foot-long building for an Advanced Light Source facility, according to the request, and news website Berkeleyside, which has been covering the plans for months.

According to excellent coverage by Berkeleyside, "The second campus, announced in September, is designed to consolidate four remote sites and allow for future growth for LBL, which is constrained by the physical limits of its main site in the Berkeley hills above the university. LBL is one of the Department of Energy’s national labs, and is managed by the University of California."

Friday afternoon was the deadline for sites that hope to contend for the facility. According to the university's preliminary schedule, officials will come up with a short list in April, and a make a final decision in June. Construction could start as early as July 2013.

Mayor Javandel said the time line sounds optimistic.

"This is not a site that we've ever anticipated would be able to move that quickly," he said. "We know the desired time line, but we don't know how feasible that is."

There are many other uncertainties as well, from the number of applicants, to the potential layout and design plans, and certainly the financial element.

"When you've got a site as big as Golden Gate Fields, there's a lot of possibility and potential. The real challenge is to figure out a way to make it financially work," Javandel said. "With regards to the finances, we really are withholding judgment. We don't know yet."

Javandel, along with  and , said the Voices to Vision report, published last April, would be a key piece of the conversation for city officials. (The report appears to the right as a PDF.)

(Lieber said he would have to recuse himself from discussions, however, at least temporarily, because his wife works for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.)

The Voices to Vision report provides for 27 acres of "built footprint" and 75 acres of open space over the 102-acre racetrack property in Albany. The racetrack owns an additional 36 acres in Berkeley, just south of the track, which holds the stables and living quarters for grooms.

The university does not have to comply with existing zoning rules, but "community support for the proposed development" is listed as one of 14 criteria for qualification. (The full request appears to the right as a PDF.)

Thomsen said the idea for the laboratory is "really something that we ought to look at."

She met with Hartman on Friday, and said the proposal includes "many dimensions," from a hotel conference center, to open space, the Bay Trail and the development of a green tech business incubator.

"It has a lot of forward-looking things in it that I think the community will like," Thomsen said. "Obviously, people are going to have questions.... But all of these things are concepts, so it's pretty open. Basically, all Golden Gate Fields is doing is hoping that the community will be open-minded to at least looking at their proposal to the university."

Norman La Force, a Sierra Club activist who has worked for years to limit waterfront development, said the club's San Francisco chapter has not yet discussed the issue. But he urged the city to proceed with caution when dealing with the university.

"UC considers itself above local law," he said Friday. "The city better approach this very carefully. If anything were to happen, the city would need, I think, to protect itself and protect the people of Albany, and make sure that UC would agree, in a binding agreement, to comply with local zoning."

La Force said it's possible the lab would be good for the waterfront, but that it could easily come at a cost.

"From a perspective of what could be done down there, it could be very beneficial," he said. "But weigh that against losing complete local control over the waterfront."

Councilman Lieber called it "ironic" that he was elected to serve the city on a platform related to Golden Gate Fields development issues, but now might not be able to participate in the discussion due to the conflict posed by his wife's employment by the lab. (He said he might seek a letter from the Fair Political Practices Commission for advice on the matter; the group works to educate officials and the public on a range of political issues, including financial conflicts of interest.)

"I guess we're going to get an opportunity to see how well Voices to Vision works," he said. "I'm hoping it does, and I'm going to rely on that. I'm hoping that all the work we did in the past to protect some open space options comes to fruition. With this proposal, or with another."

Golden Gate Fields General Manager Robert Hartman confirmed Saturday morning that the track did submit an application Friday, and that track officials met with four of five city council members last week. He said the university would decide when to make public any documents related to its request.

Hartman said he couldn't comment on any specifics of the track's proposal, but that the public needs to remember that the process is "at a very, very high level at this stage.... The Request for Qualifications that they put out is at the 10,000-feet level."

"We may not even make the short list," he said. "I'm hearing there are dozens of applicants out there. Those that do make the short list, that's when more details will come out."

In the meantime, Hartman said he hopes the public will keep an open mind and remember that the track continues to bring a lot of revenue to the city, in addition to making donations to groups such as the , and buying .

"We're a racetrack, and we're still spending lots of marketing dollars," he said. "We'll see where this other thing leads. But we're not abandoning the horse racing business right now. It's really important to us and I think it's important to the community as well."

Some members of the public have already expressed grave concern that losing the track to a tax-exempt public entity would be a severe blow to the city's narrowly-balanced economy.

"I am distressed about the prospect of such a large commercial district disappearing," wrote Albany Realtor, and recent , Francesco Papalia on Berkeleyside. "How do we make up for that lost revenue?"

Everybody makes mistakes ... ! If there's something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, give editor Emilie Raguso a call at 510-459-8325 or shoot her an e-mail at emilier@patch.com.