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El Cerrito Historical Society Meeting Summary
Sunday, January 13, 2008

The President reported on the Miraflores (Oishi/Sakai nursery) redevelopment. The environmental impact report process has started and it is expected to take many months, perhaps more than a year, to complete. The Section 106 review, the issue of which was discussed at the previous meeting, is also underway. The President reported that in his conversations with various parties it appears that parts of the nurseries have been determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. At this point the review for the listing has focused primarily on an architectural analysis of this historic resource but the analysis may be expanded to include a review of the nurseries' cultural significance. Many parties believe the cultural aspect is at least as important as the architectural aspect.

The President reported that several sections of El Cerrito's proposed zoning ordinance, including the historic resources section, had been modified in response to public comments at the October 15th public hearing and that the proposed ordinance was returned to the City Council again on December 17th for a further public hearing. The Historical Society spoke at the December 17th meeting and pointed out several areas of the ordinance that appeared to be at odds with CEQA, the controlling California statue for historical resources. The Historical Society recommended a number of changes to the proposed ordinance and also recommended that an effort be made to get the community more involved in the process. This second recommendation included an offer to co-sponsor with the city a lecture series on architectural and historic resources in town. At the end of the hearing the City Council directed the staff to remove the current historic resources section from the zoning ordinance, to return at a later date with a new proposed historic resources section, and to prepare the rest of the zoning ordinance for a first reading in January. The City Council was very receptive to the idea of a lecture series and requested that the series move forward.

The President reported that the Board wanted to make an offer to the City of El Cerrito to sponsor the attendance of a member of the El Cerrito Planning Department and also a member of the city's Planning Commission at a workshop sponsored by the California Preservation Foundation. The subject of the workshop was how CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) applies to Historic Resources. The President noted that he was planning to attend the workshop on his own. After discussion by the membership it was decided that the Society should definitely sponsor the attendance of the two people recommended by the Board. The membership also felt strongly that the Society should sponsor the attendance of the President not only at the CEQA day of the workshop but also at the day that focused on conducting historic resource surveys.

Our speaker for the day was Karen Sorenson, the author of the Arcadia “Images of America” book about Albany . Karen gave an extremely entertaining talk that featured pictures from the book. She also shared with the Society some very interesting information that was not included the book. This additional information was about the armed women who started barring garbage trucks full of Berkeley's trash from dumping their loads in what is today's Albany. This tactic only worked a short time but led to the long-term solution, which was to incorporate the city and then simply revoke the dumping privileges. Everyone enjoyed the presentation and the Albany Historical Society kindly brought a supply of books for the membership to browse and purchase.

After the meeting it was pointed out that due to the extensive discussion on several subjects, both the officers and the membership had completely forgotten that elections are always held at the January meeting. Elections will the first order of business at the April meeting.