Employer Honored; No Village Marketplace News
City Council meeting honors Peterson Tractor's 75th anniversary.
Photos
The family owners of Peterson Holding Company, the heavy equipment dealership on Marina Boulevard, were honored for their 75th anniversary at an otherwise uneventful City Council meeting Monday night.
On hand to accept the honor were company president Duane Doyle and his parents, Marion Jean and Bill Doyle.
Marion Jean is the daughter of now-deceased company founder Howard Peterson. (Read a Patch history of the Peterson company.)
Rumors persist that Peterson, which employs about 300 people in San Leandro, is considering moving out of its 20-acre site, which was once a tomato field.
Asked about this Monday night, Duane Doyle said the company has been approached many times over the past 15 years with offers to buy the property, but it has never acted on those offers and has nothing in the works now.
But such a large and centrally-located parcel is only likely to increase in value and Doyle did not permanently rule out a move.
Even so he said Peterson is deeply rooted here.
"I am relatively confident we will always have a presence in San Leandro," Doyle said.
Before the open City Council meeting, officials negotiated behind closed doors over the price and terms of selling the city-owned Albertson site on East 14th to developer David Irmer for his Village Marketplace project.
No public announcement came out of that meeting.
There has been an active discussion on the issue on Patch.
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Chris Crow
12:34 pm on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
I spoke during the Public Comments portion right before the Closed Session. With the concerns that were being raised here on Patch, I looked to the development contract to see if the "Community Participation" section of the contract would allow for more public input before the sale. The contract language states:
10. Community Participation
A. In keeping with the City of San Leandro public process the Developer will hold
at least four public meetings that will afford community groups labor organizations and other stakeholders an opportunity to discuss issues related to the development of the Project The public meetings will include community or town hall meetings. Work
sessions at the Agency governing board and/or Planning Commission will provide
additional opportunities for public participation.
An 11/7/2011 City Staff report listed the public outreach as the following: "Public outreach on Village Marketplace includes a City Council work session on April 25, 2011, a meeting with the San Leandro Downtown Association on June 24, 2011 and two community meetings on September 27, 2011 and November 2, 2011."
It seems to me that 2 out of 4 of those "outreach" meetings don't neccessarily comply with the contract. I suggested to help mitigate public concern it might behoove the council to requre the 2 more community meetings which the public was promised in the contract. (shrug) This is probably not the reason nothing came out of the meeting, but thought I'd share.
Fran
1:47 pm on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Sounds like the original contract, which is why 4 were to be held, because that is the magic number when it's "redevelopment". Also, in addition, public hearing notices must be sent to all property owners within 10 days (per california law) of said meetings. Did this happen? Doubtful.
I heard Petersen was moving to Livermore.