Hercules starts eminent domain process in effort to finish stalled four-story project
“The City Council took a first step this week toward securing by eminent domain a construction and maintenance easement needed to complete a long-stalled development, but the lawyer for the targeted property indicated a willingness to negotiate, leaving open the possibility of avoiding a court fight.
City officials have said they have made unreciprocated overtures for several months to the Bayside Homeowners Association, which owns an alley behind the half-finished, four-story Sycamore North residential-and-retail project.
The city took the lead in pursuing an easement after developer UC-BNB Partners LLC, which is under contract to take over and finish the city-owned project, said it had been stonewalled by Bayside, which at one time demanded that two floors of the building be lopped off before it would consider an easement.
Mike Hughes, Bayside’s attorney, saw it differently. He told the council Tuesday that the terms of the easement, sought first by the defunct Hercules Redevelopment Agency in 2009, later by UC-BNB and most recently by the city, have been “a moving target.””
Lochner, Tom. Contra Costa Times 22 August 2013.