One of the largest undeveloped and privately owned swaths of San Francisco Bay shoreline could sprout subdivisions, a possibility that seems to have early support of officials and many residents, but one that also has environmentalists promising a huge fight.
Cargill Inc. uses the 1,433-acre site to produce commercial salt, but spokesman John Bruno said that the corporation wants to build housing on the property eventually.
The land is just southeast of Bair Island, a marshy, 2,600-acre renovation project that is part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. On that former salt pond, where voters in 1982 forbade development, harbor seals have found a place to sunbathe and rare species like the salt harvest mouse thrive.
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News of the development interest on the nearby 1,433-acre site has riled environmentalists, who pledge to keep Cargill from getting permits to build residences there. Instead, they say the land should be used to further the state’s goal of restoring the thousands of acres of bay wetlands destroyed over the last 200 years.
But local officials, including a key member of the Redwood City Planning Commission, say they have an immense need for housing and amenities like playing fields and trails. And the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which has jurisdiction over land within 100 feet of the bay’s shoreline, said Cargill could pursue a development plan if it first restored at least half of the site to a natural setting.
Cargill is phasing out its salt production on the land and wants to convert it into some type of mixed development, including some housing. For the last year, Redwood City Industrial Saltworks — a joint venture between Cargill and a real estate development firm called DMB Associates — has solicited comments from Redwood City residents on what they want Cargill to do with the property.
More than 6,000 people have responded through mailings and comments during the company’s forums, “and the vast majority of what we’ve heard is that people are looking for a mixture of uses, and that runs the gamut from housing to parks to bay trails,” said Bruno, general manager of Redwood City Industrial Saltworks.
Bruno wouldn’t specify the type of housing Cargill envisions nor what percentage of land the housing would occupy, but any development is opposed by groups such as Save the Bay. That group recently started a campaign to protect the last remaining undeveloped properties that ring the bay.
“It’s not the place to put housing,” said the group’s executive director, David Lewis. “If Cargill thinks this can be approved, they’re living in the past.”
Cargill’s Redwood City property is zoned “tidal plain,” meaning the corporation would have to get an exemption from the Redwood City Planning Commission to pursue any development.
Before it does, Cargill would have to restore at least 50 percent of the area to natural habitat under state laws governing bay salt ponds, said Will Travis, head of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
And Lewis said the company would face additional development hurdles under the federal Clean Water Act, which he said prohibits former waterways from being filled with development if there are alternatives to put the development in another area.
And, Lewis said, state water quality regulations would also severely limit what Cargill could build on the site, which has been used for salt production since 1901.
Development in that area has been controversial since the first home at Redwood Shores was built in 1969. Dozens of office developments were built up to the bay shoreline — land that environmentalists said should have been restored. That battle in part led to the campaign to protect Bair Island, which once also was eyed for development.