EPA sets stage for Cargill plans in Redwood City

“After careful legal consideration and review, EPA has found that the Redwood City Salt Plant site does not include ‘waters of the United States’ because the site was converted to [dry] land long before the CWA was enacted,” according to the EPA’s website.

Shortly after the EPA’s announcement, property owner DMB Ventures said it would begin engaging the public about the future of the site. The project has been branded “Reimagine Saltworks.”

“Control of the future of a one-of-a-kind site in the heart of Silicon Valley is returned to the community,” David Smith, an attorney representing DMB, said in a statement. “It’s a new day and Reimagine Saltworks looks forward to engaging the public in a thoughtful way to drive a new vision of the solutions Saltworks can provide.”

The site was once used to harvest commercial salt and has had different development proposal iterations over the years. The most recent proposal by developer DMB Ventures would have created about 12,000 homes amid some wetlands restoration but was dropped in 2012 after years of controversy. Smith didn’t say what may be proposed, instead describing a planned extensive outreach through community forums, regional meetings, discussions with local governments, businesses and community advocates.

Mayor Ian Bain suggested DMB will not hear the sort of feedback it might want to hear in those discussions.

“The community wants to see the site restored to wetlands and there’s close to zero appetite for another housing proposal, “Bain said. “The site is not zoned for housing, I don’t want to see it rezoned and that’s still my position. What I would like to happen is I’d like to see Cargill donate or sell the land to a group that would restore it to wetlands.”

The announcement has caused consternation among environmentalists, including Save the Bay, which has been fighting development on the site for years. 

“It’s a terrible precedent that threatens San Francisco Bay water quality and wetlands and weakens the Clean Water Act,” said David Lewis, Save the Bay’s executive director. “This determination directly contradicts the conclusion of an extensive review and recommendation from EPA Region 9 in 2016, which found that the entire Saltworks site is within the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.”

While any development proposal would be subject to approval by the Redwood City Council, the site is also subject to other approvals by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission and federal agencies.

Lewis said hundreds of local, regional, state and federal officials are on the record over the last decade opposing development on Bay salt ponds.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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