City Continues Quest for Best Sycamore North Option

The city will continue to explore its options for the half-built project after Bridge Housing—a nonprofit that submitted a bid to buy Sycamore North—dropped its pursuit of purchasing the building, interim City Manager Liz Warmerdam said Tuesday.

The affordable housing developer sent a letter to city staff Monday following a heated Town Hall last week.

“It’s become clear to Bridge that the city has important work to do in examining risks associated with legal and regulatory matter. We believe the best thing for all concerned at this point is for Bridge to step back and let a full and open process to occur without our active involvement muddying the waters," the letter said. "If the process results in an option where Bridge can provide a solution for the city (we' d be happy to have further discussions with Hercules)."

Interim City Manager Liz Warmerdam read the letter at Tuesday’s meeting.

"We never knew that (going with Bridge) was the right path. We knew that it was an option," Warmerdam said.

Many residents protested the high number of planned affordable housing units at Sycamore North that Bridge would require during a Town Hall meeting on the project, where city staff discussed four possible options: accepting the offer to buy from Bridge—which would require all of the building's 96 units (instead of 73 units) to be affordable; tearing town three of the building’s four stories to eliminate all affordable housing; selling to a private developer with a minimal nurber of affordable units; or turning it into a hotel or assisted living facility.

The majority of residents who spoke at the meeting supported the “tear it down” option.

Almost all of the $30 million the city has spent on Sycamore North was through bond money that was intended to go toward an affordable housing project. Changing the planned affordable housing mix could lead to serious legal repercussions for the city, interim City Manager Liz Warmerdam said.

The Hercules city council, which chose at Tuesday’s meeting not to form a citizens' ad hoc group  to help determine the fate of Sycamore North, will continue to have closed session discussions with city staff on the project. It will open talks with the public when legal issues surrounding the Sycamore North options are clearer, the council decided Tuesday.

“I think there are way too many sensitive questions” and legal issues surrounding  Sycamore North to form the ad hoc group now, Councilman Dan Romero said.

“As a council, we need to understand all the legal issues as soon as possible,” said Mayor DeVera, who suggested eventually forming a Bayfront Task Force-style group to handle Sycamore North, said. “There’s so many questions that have no answers at this moment.”