Public Invited to Gateway Park Scoping Meeting Nov. 14

Agencies Launch Environmental Analysis and Seek Public Input

OAKLAND, CA — A public scoping meeting will be held Thursday, Nov. 14, from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St., Oakland, to begin the environmental review process for the Gateway Park project. The meeting will follow an open house format to accommodate schedules and allow attendees to speak directly with members of the project team.

The new park – at the east touchdown of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in Oakland – will provide a gateway to both the new East Span of the Bay Bridge and the City of Oakland. The linear park includes approximately 170 acres from the waterfront near the touchdown of the new span to Mandela Parkway. Its working title is Gateway Park.

"We encourage the public to attend and provide input on the environmental analysis for Gateway Park," said Andrew Fremier, Deputy Executive Director of the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) and member of the Gateway Park Working Group. "Identifying environmental concerns and possible mitigation measures at this juncture will help in the creation of this extraordinary public space."

The Gateway Park Working Group first hosted public workshops in 2010 to engage the community in forming a vision for the park, and then released a Project Concept Report in September 2012, detailing a distinctive recreational space that will join the power and beauty of the new span to the natural, industrial, maritime and transportation history of the area.

BATA issued a Notice of Preparation (NOP) on November 1, 2013, to solicit comments on the scope of the Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment (EIR/EA) for Gateway Park. The NOP will be available until December 6 at:

BATA’s office at 101 Eighth Street in Oakland
the West Oakland Library at 1801 Adeline Street
online at BayBridgeGatewayPark.org

In addition to attending the November 14 Scoping Meeting, the public can get information on the project by:

Visiting the project website at BayBridgeGatewayPark.org
Emailing the project team at contact@BayBridgeGatewayPark.org
Calling the project hotline at (510) 817-5988

The Gateway Park Working Group consortium includes the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), California Transportation Commission (CTC), the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD), the City of Oakland, the Port of Oakland, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), and the Association of Bay Area Governments’ (ABAG) Bay Trail Project.

The Public Scoping Meeting is ADA-accessible. For special needs requests or questions regarding the meeting, please contact Karin Betts by email at kbetts@bayareametro.gov or by phone at (510) 817-5725.

Contact:

Karin Betts, BATA: (510) 817-5725