Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Happy New Year! We hope you had a restful holiday break, and are ready to continue engaging in our efforts to keep housing at Hauke Park at a low density, while maintaining traffic safety and easy access to the park.
General Update
On Feb 7, the City Council will consider a resolution to sign an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with EAH Housing to build affordable rental housing at 1 Hamilton Drive. According to the City, the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement will allow EAH to begin community outreach (including site planning, design and environmental review) and allow EAH to explore financing. To date, the agreement has not been shared publicly. We will continue to monitor the developments closely, and respond accordingly.
The meeting will be held via Zoom (registration required). Please sign up to attend!
Legal Update
On October 6, 2021, the City filed a Notice of Exemption (NOE) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), without any courtesy notice to our attorney and contrary to normal practice. The NOE contends that the City's actions with respect to development of 1 Hamilton do not yet indicate commitment to a ‘project’ that would require environmental review under CEQA. We maintain that the City has indeed committed to 1 Hamilton by formally declaring the site “exempt surplus” land, and by selecting EAH Housing to develop the site.
In order to preserve our right to challenge the City under CEQA while avoiding the immediate filing of a lawsuit, our attorney proposed, and the City agreed, to temporarily stop or ’toll’ the time period for filing a lawsuit. The tolling agreement expires on May 2, 2022, so we will have to decide how to proceed by that date.
In another development, our attorney filed a public records request for all documents related to 1 Hamilton. In response, the City has so far produced a significant volume of records, and has notified us that they will be producing more documents shortly. We are in the process of analyzing the records and will likely make additional requests that relate to the City’s process of site selection.
Ways to Help
We hope to have your continued support in 2022 and beyond. There are many ways to help in our grassroots efforts (display a sign, attend city meetings, voice your comments on the Housing Element Survey...), so click on the buttons below to find out how.
We wish everyone good health and much happiness for 2022. See you at Hauke Park!
Warmly,
Friends of Hauke Park
