The East Bay shoreline - evolving to green

Plate tectonics, rising sea levels, and the Sierra Club Bay Chapter have been among the major forces shaping changes in the East Bay shoreline from Oakland to Richmond.

In some cases the Chapter has been the driving force. In others we have supported such organizations as the Golden Gate Audubon Society or the Parchester Village Association. In all cases, the Chapter has articulated the fundamental principals enunciated in 1961 by Esther Gulik, Kay Kerr, and Sylvia McLaughlin, the co-founders and "three tea ladies" of the "Save the Bay" movement.

• stop filling in the Bay;
• open the shoreline for public access;
• protect Bay habitat and wildlife for future generations

The Chapter's work has been based on the idea that the shoreline should not be privatized, but is a public resource to be protected and controlled by the public and not surrendered to private ownership interests wealthy enough to own or use it.

The history of shoreline uses

Through most of Oakland, the waterfront has long been used primarily for port, shipping, airport, and industrial uses. To the north, Emeryville, Berkeley, and Albany used their shorelines for dumping garbage and for expansion. Along the Richmond shoreline south of today's Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, vast stretches, today largely abandoned, were used for industry. Just north of the bridge, Chevron created its still-active large refinery. Portions of the Richmond shoreline were used for production of toxic chemicals, and in the South Bay, Leslie Salt diked off miles and miles of wetlands for salt production. North and east of that area, the shoreline has remained open and protected through benign neglect.

In the late 1950s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a study assuming that San Francisco Bay would shrink due to massive fill for development. This report galvanized the three tea ladies into action - how impertinent they were to contest the views of engineers and bureaucrats! - and into founding the Save San Francisco Bay Association. The local Sierra Club activists quickly rushed to Save the Bay's support. As a result, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission was created, the fill of the Bay has been largely stopped, and developers have started focusing on existing shoreline areas. In addition to the fight to stop Bay fill, the Sierra Club under the leadership of Dwight Steele was instrumental in stopping the proposed fourth bridge across the Bay, proposed in the 1960s as the "Southern Crossing".

In the cities of Alameda and Oakland, the Club's efforts became focused on plans for the expansion of Oakland Airport and for the conversion of the Alameda Naval Weapons Station to civilian uses. There have been perennial issues over the plans of the Port of Oakland. Recently the Club has focused on achieving improved public access to the Oakland shoreline. Currently, around Jack London Square and the Oak-to-Ninth Avenue area, the Club is opposing development plans that would privatize important lands and give up Public Trust rights by turning parks into mere amenities for private development.

In Albany, Berkeley, and Emeryville, the Chapter, through its East Bay Shoreline Park Task Force, chaired first by Ed Bennett and then by Norman La Force, led a successful community effort to stop the privatization of the shoreline and to convert the land into today's Eastshore State Park, culminating in 2001 in the adoption of the park's General Plan. A major remaining concern is the future of the Golden Gate Fields race track, and how much of that site can be added to the park as opposed to being turned into a racing casino.

In the Richmond area the Chapter has played a major role, along with other organizations, to try to stop the massive residential development of the former Stauffer Chemical (now Zeneca) site. The Chapter has also worked hard to protect the North Richmond shoreline and get critical habitat into public ownership. One of the key areas is Breuner Marsh. Here the Sierra Club has worked closely with the African-American community of Parchester Village. So far we have successfully blocked development of the marsh.

A current new development threat to these Bayshore areas comes from Indian tribal casinos.

The Sierra Club has had great successes in winning protection for the Eastshore State Park, but both to the north in Albany and Richmond, and to the south in Oakland, we are actively engaged in stopping or reshaping major development plans. The Richmond city government and the Port of Oakland have historically been over-compliant with developers, and so we have major challenges left.

To help in these efforts, contact Norman La Force (Richmond and Albany) at (510) 526-4362 or n.laforce-at-comcast.net or Anna Wagner (Oakland) at (510) 848-0800, ext. 307 or anna-at-sfbaysc.org

Norman La Force, chair, East Bay Public Lands Committee and West Contra Costa County Group