Update: Council Pushes Ideas For Broadway Plaza's Future

Update: 2:15 p.m. Wednesday

The City Council on Tuesday night approved an ad hoc committee to develop terms for a potential 15-year development agreement with Macerich, the owner of Broadway Plaza, for an expansion of the pedestrian mall.

The council appointed Mayor Cindy Silva and Council member Gary Skrel to serve on the ad hoc committee. Silva said the terms of a development agreement would go before the Planning Commission, where it would get a public hearing. The Planning Commission recommendation would then go to the full City Council.

On Tuesday, Macerich executives gave the council a rundown on concepts they were developing,, as part of a master plan guiding expansion. And they are seeking a 15-year development agreement with provisions for two five-year extensions.

"Twenty-five years is a very long time," said Silva. She said she liked the idea forwarded by Mayor Pro Tem Bob Simmons that a future council would review developmental progress in order to deem Macerich eligible for a five-year extension.

A long agreement, said Councilmember Kristina Lawson, "is a very big deal, potentially tying the hands of the council for 25 years."

Silva and Simmons talked about the potential for an ad hoc committee to shape principles for a development agreement.

Lawson expressed ambivalence, saying, "I question the effectiveness of our subcommittees in the past on these type of issues." She said an ad hoc committee would be more useful if it could review a draft development agreement.

Council members used the session to forward ambitious ideas. Simmons envisioned an elevated path over Mount Diablo Boulevard as the "European village" option that Macerich was developing, which calls for second-floor retail outlets with balconies.

Simmons said he liked some Macerich concepts that would include second-floor residential units mixed with commercial expansion. "I'm open to the notion of residential," he said. "I'd like to see the process evolve to the point where we know exactly what's up there, how it looks."

An elevated path would address an issue all council members present (Skrel was absent) said was important — that Broadway Plaza's expansion should improve connections to the traditional downtown adjacent to the plaza.

Improving connections to downtown, Silva told Macerich representatives, "is going to be your challenge as you move forward with this project."

Park it

Council member Kish Rajan said, "I have total confidence in Macerich to construct something that will be a superior shopping experience and integrates well with the community." However, Rajan went on to say he was not satisfied with Macerich's ideas on parking. He urged Macerich to come up with "21st Century" solutions to parking problems.

Earlier Macerich Vice President Chuck Davis had talked about underground parking levels combined with escalators and elevators to brings shoppers to retail levels. Any parking construction would eliminate the current 55-year-old parking deck that is "not ideal," Davis said.

Parking integration would involve Macerich, which owns 12 1/2 acres at the site, cooperating with Macy's, which owns seven acres. Macy's has been following Macerich's process of developing a master plan, said Davis. "Our land use counsel has spoken with their land use counsel," he said.

After Macerich made its presentation, several residents made comments.

Mike Fotheringham, a member of the city's Design Review Commission, asked Macerich to develop urban design context maps that show how the project ties into the rest of downtown.

Architect Joseph Gorny said he liked the general direction, but added that "sometimes we have the tendency to over-pedestrian things … I don't want to create a mall without a roof on it." He recommended European developments that don't shut cars out, but find ways to slow them down.

Pat Gaffney lives "a stone's throw from Nordstrom's." Gaffney called Macerich proposals "brilliant" that call forconverting the street called Broadway Plaza, which runs in the middle of the pedestrian mall of the same name, into a pedestrian walkway with landscaping. He said the Macerich plans "strengthen this urban village concept that is the reason that I came to this community."

If that plan goes forward to convert most of the street (leaving cul-de-sacs at either end for vehicle dropoffs and turnarounds), the city would go through a formal street vacation process as part of the land use application, said City Manager Ken Nordhoff.