Ideas abound for M.I.'s future
"We used to explore all over the base," Tuziak said. "I have a lot of good memories there." She's been back, but it's a far different place. "It's unrecognizable," Tuziak said. With a new surge in development nearing, Mare Island should soon look even more unfamiliar to former base residents and workers. Someday, thousands will call Mare Island home. Thousands more will cross the causeway and Sears Point bridges to work at offices and warehouses covering millions of square feet. And mainland Vallejo residents will flock to the former military base to hike, golf and picnic outdoors. At least, that's the vision created under Vallejo's base reuse plan. To the casual visitor, Mare Island's not quite there yet. "I always thought that it was a place that seemed abandoned," said Khalif Muhammad of Vallejo, who has checked out the new houses. Predictions A decade ago, base reuse planners made their best guess to predict Mare Island's future only to find recently that home buyers didn't agree with some choices - like reopening the base's dredge ponds. That project was dropped in January after public pressure pushed the housing developer to pay off the dredge pond developer. If recent developments are any indicator, the former military base's future may include catering to Mare Island's population. With hundreds living on Mare Island so far and thousands more expected to make the move, residents will likely demand neighborhood services like stores, a gas station and even a supermarket - similar to what the base offered before it closed. Plenty of ideas are floating around. The base developer has talked about a promenade of shops and restaurants, a water taxi service and even a ferry dock, while residents have talked about wetlands and a regional park. "The future is unknown," said Tuziak, a former Mare Island resident. "There is so much that can be done."
A brief history In a way, the base closure in 1996 was a positive for Vallejo, said former Mayor Gloria Exline, who was on the council at the time. "I felt no longer would we be dependent on the Navy and wars, but we would be dependent on industry that would be a more dependable economic base," Exline said. For developer Lennar Mare Island LLC, the vision is clear: Make Mare Island a place where people want to live and work, hike and bike, shop and dine. In 1997, the year after the base closed, the city gave Lennar the job of transforming the base for civilian use. Not an easy task when the base had been used for the previous 141 years as a military installation. Thousands of workers had built nuclear submarines and repaired ships. Military personnel and their families lived and worked on the base. And outsiders rarely ventured over the bridges and through the shipyard's guarded gates. It was like its own little city within Vallejo. The base transferred to civilian hands in 1996 and became, for the most part, a ghost town, while work went on in the background to revamp Mare Island. It wasn't until 2002, that Lennar took control from the Navy of about 650 acres on the Mare Island's eastern side. It's been a challenge ever since. Lennar's had to deal with environmental cleanup of such problems as lead-laced soils and underground fuel containers left by the Navy. Other developers also had to deal with problems including unexploded ordinance also left by the military. The sewers needed fixing. Roads had to be dug up and resurfaced. And the land must be divided into individual parcels, each with its own utility hookups, so properties can be sold. It all takes time, said Tom Sheaff, regional vice president of Lennar Corporation, which formed Lennar Mare Island venture. "It's very difficult because everyone wants progress as quickly as possible," Sheaff said. Job creation In the decade since the base closed, 80 businesses have opened shop on Mare Island, bringing some 2,000 workers to the old base each day, Lennar officials said. That's still nowhere near the 40,000 civilians the government employed, not including military personnel, when Mare Island was at its most active as a wartime base. Mare Island needs more jobs and more businesses, City Councilmember Stephanie Gomes said. "I want to make sure we get the light industrial and the jobs that we keep hearing about and we focus on commercial and retail and not just focus on homes," Gomes said. (Before her election to the council in November, Gomes had helped lead citizen opposition to a proposed liquefied natural gas plant on the island's south end.) Lately, most of the attention has gone to housing. The residential areas were among the first zones that regulatory agencies cleared for new development, Lennar officials said. The company has actively advertised the homes, selling more than 175 since sales began more than a year ago. Lennar has used freeway billboards and radio ads to lure others to Mare Island's new real estate.
What you see Many have bought into Lennar's vision for creating a new community on the former shipyard. Lennar is pitching a promenade of ship and restaurants. The company has hopes for a water taxi service. And it's pursuing the addition of a permanent Vallejo Baylink Ferry stop at Mare Island, so people there won't have to drive to mainland Vallejo to hop a ride to San Francisco. Lennar also is negotiating with the city to develop the old north end, once home to the old base gas station, supermarket and store. Though hundreds have moved to Mare Island so far, just don't expect Amy Rodrick of Vallejo to be one of them. "I wouldn't live there," Rodrick said. "You have to go through the scroungy part to get to your new house." That may be the problem. For many people, the trip to Mare Island is like a trip out of town. Drive onto the old base and before you reach the tree-lined streets of central Mare Island, you'll see truck-size mounds of soil under tarps that Lennar officials say they're stockpiling for projects. Some roads are well-landscaped, with newly planted palm trees and lush lawns, near newly painted buildings. Other roads are bumpy and sport views of old buildings that look ready for the wrecking ball. "It's empty," said former shipyard worker Howard Fitzpatrick of Vallejo. "There's not very many people over there. When it was an active shipyard, there were thousands of people. Compared to that, it's practically vacant."
Improvements Visitors can expect to see more improvements this year, Lennar officials said. For instance, the developer plans to add more street signs to help people navigate around the old base. The company also has plans to eventually replace the street lights lining Wichels Causeway on the bridge with replicas of lamps from nearly a century ago. "The idea is to create character that's similar to what's been there in the past," Lennar's Sheaff said of the lights. "The idea for us is to continue that theme into the future." As early as April, regulators are expected to sign off on the fourth of 10 areas being investigated by Lennar for cleanup, Lennar officials said. Once the company gets the OK, it plans to move forward with plans to develop projects, including office space. More than 70,000 cars from Solano County go into Contra Costa County daily, Lennar General Manager David Cumming said. "We're going to do our best to intercept as many of those as we can," Cumming said.
Litmus test For now, unless someone works, lives or attends school on Mare Island, there's no reason to venture there, said Myrna Hayes, community co-chair of Mare Island Restoration Advisory Board. The group monitors the base conversion's progress. "In terms of the general public coming to the island, it feels to me just about as off-limits as if it had military police at the main gate," Hayes said. "I don't see people using the parks," she added. "I don't see picnic tables. I don't see the sign of Mare Island being woven into the fabric of this town." Annual events like the annual San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival in January and the more recent Daffodil Tea Party at the old mansions bring people to Mare Island, she said. And for several years the Concours D'Elegance classic car show drew hundreds to post-base Mare Island. But special events alone can't bring people here, Hayes said. For the base reuse to be successful, more people need to visit Mare Island, Hayes said. "My test of when Mare Island is fully on its feet and integrated into our community is when I see and experience full public access," Hayes said. "Nobody knows about it and they don't have a reason to come here." - E-mail Chris G. Denina at cdenina@thnewsnet.com or call 553-6835. |