The environmental impact report for the huge Sacramento rail yards redevelopment project was upheld earlier this month by Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connolly.
Two lawsuits over the EIR were filed – one by a group of environmentalists and one by Westfield, which owns Downtown Plaza not far from the rail yards. Both suits claimed Sacramento did not adequately address traffic and air impacts.
For good reason, the Westfield suit has received most of the attention. Westfield obviously feels threatened by the 1 million square feet of retail development planned for the rail yards – and it should feel threatened. There is every reason to fear that, once it gets going, the rail yards project will suck the life out of downtown and midtown, both of which still need plenty of new investment.
But Westfield also has itself to blame. The Downtown Plaza is a disaster. I don't know what its vacancy rate is, but the place looks about half-empty. The benches and potted plants that are ubiquitous at most malls are almost completely absent from the univiting Downtown Plaza. When I was there recently, Tony Bennett crooned throughout the mall. I was told that blasting Bennett and Frank Sinatra at high volume was intended to discourage hoodlums from loitering.
Not long after he became mayor, Kevin Johnson had sharp words for Westfield. He accused the company of ignoring its downtown property while it invested heavily in the suburban Galleria at Roseville.
Part of the problem is that Downtown Plaza is neither fish nor fowl. Located at the end of the K Street mall, the area was an open air shopping plaza until about 20 years ago. The property owner at the time, Trizec Hahn, then built another story and added a roof. But neither did it completely enclose the mall in climate-controlled comfort, as there are wide open-air entrances on Seventh and Fifth streets. I'm sure downtown San Diego's thriving Horton Plaza was the model for the project, but the design has never worked as well in Sacramento.
What to do? Well, Johnson has taken the initiative on getting a new basketball arena built downtown. To me, the most obvious location for an arena is the site where Downtown Plaza now languishes. A well-designed and heavily used arena could be the project that finally turns around the K Street Mall and the west end of downtown. The arena could also help ensure the viability of downtown after the rail yards project starts to become reality. A busy arena could even be a selling point for the proposed 12,000 housing units only a short light rail or streetcar ride away in the rail yards.
Plus, if state lawmakers are willing to exempt a football stadium and gigantic entertainment complex in suburbia from CEQA, they surely would be willing to provide similar consideration to a transit-oriented basketball arena within walking distance of their offices.
– Paul Shigley
