Monday and Tuesday saw a two-day opening to begin the crafting of the Resort Area Master Plan. A Charete was held at the convention center: 1-5 on Monday, 1-3 on Tuesday. On Monday there was an opening Presentation by the consulting team from Sasaki, followed by input. On Tuesday Sasaki brought back three draft plans for comment. Nobody seemed to like any of the plans in their entirety. A few of us tried to mix-and-match.
What raised eyebrows is that Options 2 and 3 resurrected BRT as a Resort Area-only system. Don't like that? Option 1 had a streetcar running the length of Pacific Avenue. All three plans had light rail coming to the Resort Area from Norfolk, though with different routings and end points.
The development proposed was largely off-the-shelf: convention center HQ hotel, Rudee Loop, Dome site, mixed-use in RT-2 and RT-3, etc. It was the Transportation proposals that broke new ground.
I tried putting together a hybrid from Options 1 and 3 that would have changed the light rail alignment and provided housing for the Resort Area workforce. The head of the Sasaki team liked my idea...until Planning Department Staff pointed out my housing proposal would violate AICUZ regulations. (Darn)
Sasaki will be back in February at which time everyone will try to merge the three options into a single draft plan.
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