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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Oak Park residents envision something other than McDonald's for vacant lot
by deb belt, published on March 27, 2011 at 10:35 PM
Storyline: Oak Park Development
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How about a hardware store, garden shop, day care center, café, dog park, hair salon, yogurt shop or art supply business? These were some ideas vocalized during the community-visioning event Saturday where more than 50 people gathered at Grange Hall to share thoughts about potential uses for a vacant lot at 2nd Avenue and Stockton Boulevard in Oak Park.
A McDonald’s with a 24-hour drive-through is currently proposed for the one-acre site, which faces commercial and medical buildings on Stockton and a residential neighborhood on 2nd Avenue.
“The goal of this meeting is to hear neighborhood concerns about the proposed McDonald’s and develop a new vision about what could go on that property,” said facilitator JoEllen Arnold, who owns a home near the site. “We will then take these concerns and ideas to the City Planning Commission in a few months.”
The event was hosted by Healthy Development for Oak Park and included a presentation by Ron Vrilakas, an architect with 20 years experience in helping shape the urbanscape in Sacramento. Vrilakas recalled a similar situation about a decade ago when a Jack in the Box was planned for 19th and J Streets, and Midtown residents were successful at “holding back the fast food flood gate.” He noted that it didn’t take long for a new opportunity to come along and offer a pedestrian-oriented development with smaller shops that are more fitting in Midtown.
Vrilakas advised the group to focus on the city planning aspect of the proposed McDonald’s and warned against asking for something on the site that is not feasible. He advocated the idea of a mixed-use project.
“This is a strong case,” he said. “Nobody has the right to develop a drive-through. It’s an entitlement in which the applicant asks for a special permit.” He said the applicant is asking for a special privilege in order to make more money without any gain for the community.
Regarding land use, Vrilakas said the drive-through McDonalds is inappropriate in relationship to nearby single-family homes.
“It’s extremely cruel to put this next to homes,” he said. It’s fundamentally criminal.”
According to City Planning documents, the request is for a 3,897 square-foot restaurant with 30 parking stalls, 11,500 square-feet of landscaping and a side-by-side drive through.
During the meeting, residents expressed concerns about what the McDonald’s would bring to their neighborhood. Top worries included increased traffic, pedestrian and bike safety, air pollution from idling cars, noise, trash and increased crime from people coming into the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night.
Switching from the image of McDonald’s, the group then engaged in creating a vision of something better for Oak Park. Arnold encouraged residents to think of what they drive out of the neighborhood to attain. People responded with a wide-range of thoughts including a dry cleaners, bike shop or gym. Artist Frankie Hansbearry illustrated the ideas on a long sheet of paper during the brainstorming. Some ideas were more popular than others, but many responded positively to the concept of a mixed-use space.
While the visioning activity was well received, people were aware that the land is privately owned. The landowner was identified as John Saca, executive president of Saca Development. According to the company’s website, its commercial arm has more than $1 billion worth of transactions with companies such as Chevron, Target, Home Depot, Starbucks and Walgreens.
Charlene Hauser, MD, of Healthy Development for Oak Park, lives on 2nd Avenue and said the site of the proposed McDonald’s is right in the middle of her bike commute to work. Hauser said there is not yet a date for when the proposed project will go to the City Planning Commission and that a traffic study has to be conducted first.
“We were excited to see such a great turn out for this event,” she said. “We look forward to working with our elected officials for the best outcome.”
Visit hdop.webs.com for more information on Healthy Development for Oak Park.
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Savage, we are angry at Luddite anti-business types who make it impossible to engage in commerce, and then wonder why their city turned into a slum.
i wonder how many of these residents have stopped to consider the fact that, aside from the day care center and dog park, most Wal-Mart Supercenters contain all of the above? I hope someone proposes building a Wal-Mart in Oak Park using the residents' desires as their rationale.
btw I am a 30 year Oak Park resident and watched us miss one opportunity after another primarily by kissing the you know what of various special and often single issue groups.
Rather interesting in a neighborhood more than 50% Hispanic... not a single suggestion for any type of Hispanic restaurant. Wonder who these so called neighborhood leaders were representing?
How about these neighborhood troublemakers open one themselves? Then they might learn why no such shops work well in Oak Park, or many other places for that matter.
Until then, they should go home, shut up, get out of the way, let commerce be developed, let the local teenyboppers get a convenient entry-level job, and let a vacant lot finally get some use.
How much do you want to bet that these same troublemakers profess to support "infill development", yet make it impossible to do just that?
And now have a Noah's Bagels and a Taqueria instead? So Midtowners engaged in snobbery. Well, perhaps they can afford to. The Oak Parkers cannot. This is a lot that has remained vacant for many years.
The Oak Park opponents remind me of castaways who are unhappy because the rescue boat wasn't luxurious enough. They should be grateful to have *any* development in Oak Park.
Are you kidding me!? I don't know if you've read a news paper in the last 10 years, but Oak Park is not a group of "castaways" that the rest of the city can forget about or point to as an example of a downtrodden people who should be happy with whatever scraps of development are thrown our way. We are the largest, most highly organized neighborhood in the entire Sacramento Region. I can’t believe that you would even write such garbage! If I were going to build a 24-hour drive through next door to your house would you still be on your high-horse about free commerce and jobs for teenyboppers?
I am a proponent of infill development in Oak Park and throughout Sacramento. Unfortunately Curmudgeon, you must not understand what good infill development is. Good infill isn’t the idea of taking whatever someone proposes for a site, even if it doesn’t fit the context, and building it just to get an empty lot off of our hands. Good infill development is done thoughtfully and fits within the existing conditions and context of the site and neighborhood. Good infill development also complies with local planning documents and master plans that have previously been produced by the community. This project does neither.
The Stockton Broadway Urban Design Plan is a document that was put together by the City and SHRA at a cost of nearly $100k. It involved many workshops and input from the community and various stakeholders to plan Stockton and Broadway as a whole and discusses this site specifically. This area is meant to be part of the “Medical Center District” and is intended to promote a hospital campus-like feeling along Stockton north of Broadway. The plan calls for larger massing of buildings (not one story, squat buildings with a floor area ratio of only about 25%), encourages mixed-use development that is hospital serving, and specifically calls out discouraged uses within this district: fast food and anything with a drive-thru. This doesn’t fit the plan for the district and it doesn’t fit the context of the adjacent residential uses. If we’re not going to follow our own plans, then we just spent $100k to make the neighborhood feel warm and fuzzy inside and nothing else.
I know you’re just keeping up with appearances; that picture of you as Oscar the Grouch fits well with the trash that’s coming out of your mouth, but believe me there IS such a thing as bad development and Oak Park has already had its’ fair share.
Because vacant lots and spray painted fences are just so much more beautiful than an at least maintained fast food eatery?
"I feel soooo lucky to have a 24-hour squawking drive-thru speaker taking orders next to my house at 3 a.m. That grease smell in the morning is soooo nice to wake up to!"
As opposed to the boom-box cars along Stockton Boulevard with the occassional bursts of gunfire.
"Are you kidding me!? I don't know if you've read a news paper in the last 10 years, but Oak Park is not a group of "castaways" that the rest of the city can forget about or point to as an example of a downtrodden people who should be happy with whatever scraps of development are thrown our way."
I have driven through it, and my wife works at UCD Med. That is all we need to know. We would not live there if they paid us to do so.
"We are the largest, most highly organized neighborhood in the entire Sacramento Region."
And it shows...not in a good way either.
"If I were going to build a 24-hour drive through next door to your house would you still be on your high-horse about free commerce and jobs for teenyboppers?"
They did--and we were grateful for the convenience. The neighbor kids were grateful for a job they could walk to.
"Good infill isn’t the idea of taking whatever someone proposes for a site, even if it doesn’t fit the context, and building it just to get an empty lot off of our hands."
OK, a friendly modest wager: You reject the Golden Arches, and that lot stays vacant for at least another 5 years. Heck, make that 10 years.
"The Stockton Broadway Urban Design Plan is a document that was put together by the City and SHRA at a cost of nearly $100k. It involved many workshops and input from the community and various stakeholders to plan Stockton and Broadway as a whole and discusses this site specifically."
Wow, and given the track record of the City and SHRA, this is supposed to encourage you?
"This area is meant to be part of the “Medical Center District” and is intended to promote a hospital campus-like feeling along Stockton north of Broadway. The plan calls for larger massing of buildings (not one story, squat buildings with a floor area ratio of only about 25%), encourages mixed-use development that is hospital serving, and specifically calls out discouraged uses within this district: fast food and anything with a drive-thru."
And it won't happen. It has been years now.
“I have driven through it, and my wife works at UCD Med. That is all we need to know. We would not live there if they paid us to do so.”
Again, you’re speaking about something you know nothing about. You are basing your opinions on hearsay and your own insecurities/prejudices. Oak Park is a historic neighborhood with a genuine past and a bright future and great neighbors who care deeply about, and are deeply connected with their community. There is much more to Oak Park than Stockton Blvd. I’m curious; what paradise do you live in? Where is this magical 24-hour fast food restaurant that is built right next door to your house that you love so much and that contributes so greatly to the success of your community?
"We are the largest, most highly organized neighborhood in the entire Sacramento Region."
And it shows...not in a good way either.
I’m curious how this shows in a bad way? Or are you just basing your prejudice on hearsay and a general lack of knowledge again?
“Wow, and given the track record of the City and SHRA, this is supposed to encourage you?”
No, the vast input of community members, planning professionals and stakeholders (including the UC Davis Med Center, adjacent neighborhood associations, PACS, RACS and the Oak Park Business Association) is encouraging to me. Race Studio (www.racestudio.com), a national, award winning planning and urban design firm with an established track record of producing high-quality urban design plans produced the document and facilitated the numerous community design workshops, not SHRA; they merely provided the funding. The track record of the City’s and SHRA’s ability to carry out these community plans is the issue here. We spend countless thousands of dollars on these plans, with an opportunity for as much input from as many groups and interests as possible, then totally disregard them and build whatever anyone with a pocketful of cash wants.
And I’ll take your bet. By 2016, the growth of the hospitals and related clinics in the district will create enough demand for a medical-serving business there, IF the City decides to follow their own planning documents and rules.
"There are so many fast food restaurants in poor and low income communities, especially Black communities, because the people in these communities can afford to purchase the food due to the food's cheap price. This is why you see and hear so much about dollar menus today, things (cheap food) you can purchase to eat that cost less than a dollar. Dollar menus are clearly going to appeal to poor people. Poor people allow economics (internal and external economics) to dictate how they live and what they will eat."
Read more: http://www.dherbs.com/articles/fast-food-conspiracy-359.html#ixzz1I1WdcNVe
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/forms/design-guidelines/documents/broadway-and-stockton-blvd-design-guidelines.pdf
You will notice that the study address the intersection of Stockton and 2nd avenue in its entirety and in fact extends north all the way to Y Street. I would say that reducing the plan's overlay is disregarding its intent.