Council Gazes In Broadway Plaza Crystal Ball

The City Council, when it meets Tuesday, takes up the strategy and logistics of a Broadway Plaza long-range master plan.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in closed session to discuss negotiations with the Police Officers Association and Police Management Association. The open session is due to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 1666 N. Main St.

A city staff report asks the City Council to provide direction on whether to vacate a public street (the street called Broadway Plaza running in the middle of the 25-acre development, which is called Broadway Plaza). This would eliminate 63 parking spaces. A fraction of the street connecting from South Main Street would lead to a new underground parking structure.

The street would be vacated to enhance pedestrian use of the center. A formal process is required for the city to vacate the street and transfer to the applicant, Broadway Plaza owner Macerich.

"Adding the square footage of the vacated street to the project site increases the site size and therefore the potential build-out of the site," states the staff report by the Community Development Department.

One concern expressed by design review and planning commissioners was that the Broadway Plaza master plan maintain a connection with Walnut Creek's traditional downtown, or not create barriers that separate downtown into Broadway Plaza and Everything Else. The vacation of the street and conversion to a pedestrian mall runs the risk of changing the character, "creating a divide on Mount Diablo Boulevard and/or South Main Street that discourages shoppers from experiencing other areas of the city," the staff report says.

The council will also talk about a development agreement among the city and the two owners of the property, Macerich and Macy's. The applicants are asking for a 10-year agreement with "two five-year extensions to be automatically triggered upon the completion of certain development milestones — essentially, a 20-year development agreement," the staff report says.

Other city business

Also on the agenda is a discussion of the obligation payment schedule for development revenues as the city transitions in the dissolution of a local redevelopment agency under the auspices of state legislation.