The Editor,
“Wake up Steveston,” Letters, Oct. 8.
In his letter, Bob Ransford attacks the mayor, city council and Steveston merchants for opposing Onni’s application to re-zone the empty Imperial Landing buildings along the Steveston waterfront.
Many Steveston voters did wake up some time ago when they realized that Onni was trying to manipulate them through misleading meetings, telephone surveys and petitions.
All of these were a variation on the theme, “Would you rather have empty buildings or commercial stores and restaurants?”
None of them asked the question, “Do you think that in return for being handed millions of dollars through re-zoning, Onni should share some of those millions with the city so that it can construct improved community services such as an expanded Steveston Library and a permanent roof for the Steveston pool so that it can be used year round?”
One of the major reasons that we need expanded community services in Steveston is the large amount of new housing that Onni built on the former cannery property with the resulting substantial increase in population.
City councillors have made it clear that the main issue is money for the community, not leaving buildings vacant or insisting that they only be used for boat repair.
Onni can get around $20-30 per square foot more in rent for commercial space than it can for currently zoned maritime industrial use. They have 55,000 square feet of space available, so re-zoning hands them a gift of an extra $1.5 million per year for many years in the future.
Onni’s last offer to the City in return for re-zoning contained various options with a value between $2 and $2.5 million. Not nearly enough.
While no one is pretending that all of the space could be leased for maritime related use, one potential tenant has stated that Onni refused to lease an entire building at maritime industrial rates for a maritime related store and insisted on commercial rates.
If so, this confirms that the dispute is all about money.
Some Steveston merchants have opposed the re-zoning on the basis of unfair competition.
Given the large amount of land in Steveston already zoned commercial which is being or will be developed, competition will increase no matter what happens with the Imperial Landing buildings.
The point is to preserve the small shops character of Steveston and not introduce big box stores that drive out small shops.
This could be done through appropriate zoning.
One option is to re-zone most of the buildings to commercial use while keeping some of the buildings zoned for maritime-related or community use at lower rents.
People like Bob Ransford, with deep roots in Steveston, should be promoting a fair deal between the city and Onni which provides maximum benefit for Steveston voters, rather than falling for the misleading Onni agenda which provides a very large financial benefit to themselves and a relatively small benefit to the community.
There should be meaningful negotiations between Onni and the city, rather than the pathetic back and forth we have witnessed over the years.
The Onni strategy now appears to be waiting for a new council that may include some new faces who only see empty buildings. If so, Steveston voters will wake them up and insist on a fair deal.
John Roston
Steveston
