Rebuttal to Easy Reader article on Project Verandas/HighRose (9/2/22):

The Easy Reader completely misses the point that this is next to a refinery and the state is about to clarify that creating affordable housing next to a refinery is unsafe and is incorporating a 3200 ft buffer zone between affordable housing and any refinery.

Easy Reader further misses the point that because the project is literally next to the refinery, this project perpetuates a historic social injustice of locating low income housing next to the environmental hazards that black and brown historically disadvantaged people have been shoved into. This injustice is what the state is trying to address by creating a 3200 ft buffer zone in the new legislation. While the new law may or may not apply, it is an acknowledgment by the State of the tireless efforts of environmental justice advocates seeking to address this historic injustice, particularly those of Asian, Latinx and African-American descent who survived the 2012 explosion at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, CA — an event I personally witnessed.

Residents are not against afffordable housing, they are against being duped by a developer, including the submission of a paid for environmental report submitted the night before the last City Council hearing that did not allow for proper review. Further, residents are suspect of being duped when the City Planning Commission staff loses its objectivity with a developer and engages in activity that suggests a conflict of interest. Residents are appalled that they have to spend time and effort to double check work that has clearly not been done by civil servants who seem to be acting as automatons, not critical thinkers.

Residents are also disappointed with the city attorney, who seems to be towing the line of certain political forces on council exclaiming that its “hands are tied” instead of providing a solution that includes a full throated, well researched defense of the city and residents’ views. Further, the city attorney does not appear to be publicly addressing the failure of the city planning commission staff to do the kind of investigation that the density bonus law requires — including the independent examination as to whether the well documented health and safety concerns meet objective standards established by EPA, Cal-EPA for hazards like methane intrusion and groundwater pollution. Perhaps they were too busy chumming it up with the developer.

Now is the time for heroes and not zeroes.

-CTB