Are the Cargill saltwater ponds part of San Francisco Bay? Take a look for yourself!

Developers from Arizona have been running ads on television suggesting that the Redwood City saltwater ponds operated by Cargill to produce salt aren't really part of San Francisco Bay, despite their history of being integrated with the Bay, including all the years of salt production.

CGF produced the following two videos as response.






Other Committee for Green Foothills YouTube videos are here.

-Brian

More pictures of Cargill as part of San Francisco Bay

Arizona developers are denying that Cargill ponds are part of San Francisco Bay.  Below is more evidence to the contrary.

-Brian

This sure looks like San Francisco Bay to us

Arizona developers would like to build a mini-city on half of 1,433 acres of San Francisco Bay in Redwood City that have been used for salt ponds for years, and they claim that the area is an "industrial site" and not part of the Bay.  Take a look for yourself at these pictures.  The salt didn't fall from the sky - it's an area of the Bay that has been manipulated to harvest the salt that the Bay waters brought it.  In rainy season (and whenever Bay water was allowed in), the salt ponds look like the rest of the Bay.  And just because the land under the water you see here has been used to make salt, doesn't change what it was and remains, unless it gets filled in.

-Brian

Redwood City Saltworks Forum on Open Space and Recreation

Last night I had the opportunity to speak to Redwood City residents at a forum about recreation and open space at the site of the Redwood City Industrial Siteworks/Seaport Wetlands (depending on your point of view). The forum was hosted by Cargill/DMB, the group doing public outreach in advance of submitting a plan to the city for this 1,400 acre site located at the foot of Seaport Boulevard.

About 170 people turned out for the meeting, many if not most of them supportive of the concept of restoring the site, currently in salt production, to wetlands and open space. There was also a contingent of folks concerned about the lack of recreational space for youth sports, but many of them also supported restoration, as long as some accommodation could be made for the sporting facilities.

This site has special significance as it is the last large parcel on the Peninsula's bayfront not included in the efforts to restore the South Bay salt ponds. I urged the developers to think regionally when putting together a plan for the site, including making provisions to close a 2-mile gap in the SF Bay Trail and cooperating with efforts to restore wetlands. I also pointed out that the developers would need a change in zoning to support development on the site, currently most of the site is zoned tidal floodplain and 2/3s of the site designated for open space uses only. With the recent estimates that this part of the bay would be inundated with rising sea level and national trends post-Katrina not to build in floodplains, the developers would be wise to consider these major site constraints and trends in preparing whatever plan they do for the property.

At the end of the evening, the project lead for DMB called me the "MVP" of the evening since I ended up fielding most of the questions from the audience. I was very happy that most of the questions showed a real interest in seeing this property protected as open space and included in the wider wetlands restoration efforts.

To participate in future forums, please check out the DMB website for the property: http://www.rcsaltworks.com/. The next important step is to participate in the City's general plan process to retain the current zoning to protect this property. If you are a Redwood City resident and want to add your name to our action alert emails for this project, send your information to info@greenfoothills.org.

~ Holly Van Houten, Executive Director