Citizens For East Shore Parks - History

History

CESP was founded in 1985 to oppose Santa Fe Railroad’s proposals for large-scale development at the Berkeley and Albany waterfront. Historically, CESP grew from the wider movement among East Bay residents to protect San Francisco Bay and its shoreline from capricious and irresponsible development. A coalition of local environmentalists, public officials, and concerned individuals banded together to form Citizens for the Eastshore State Park, with the original goal of creating a state park that would permanently and strategically preserve the shoreline for public and recreational use.

By 1990, Albany, Berkeley, and Emeryville residents had overwhelmingly approved ballot measures to protect the remaining open space on the shoreline. With its plans stymied, Santa Fe Railroad became interested in selling the land. Citizens for the Eastshore State Park played an important role in the park planning process. CESP helped draft two successful bond measures that would eventually enable the California Department of State Parks and the East Bay Regional Park District to acquire the land and administer the park. Moreover, CESP served as a forum for diverse groups and individuals to agree on a common vision for the shoreline park, as well as an intermediary between the public and public officials.

In December 2002, the California Department of State Parks unanimously approved the Eastshore State Park general plan. The Eastshore State Park opened in 2006, almost forty years after the vision of a shoreline park was first articulated. The 8.5-mile (13.7 km) long park spans the Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Albany and Richmond waterfronts, and preserves more than 2,000 acres (810 ha) of uplands and tidelands—also home to sixteen species of rare, threatened, or endangered wildlife.

In 2004, CESP changed its name from Citizens for the Eastshore State Park to Citizens for East Shore Parks in order to reflect its broader commitment to acquiring and preserving open space in the East Bay.

In 2006, CESP led a successful campaign to preserve the Albany shoreline from Magna Entertainment Corporation’s development efforts. The proposed shopping mall would have split the Eastshore State Park in two.

Leading up to it culmination in 2008, CESP joined with the local groups in Richmond to create a vision to protect the Richmond shoreline for open space, public access, habitat protection and recreation. CESP advocated for the direct acquisition of Breuner Marsh as part of the East Bay Regional Park system. As part of the North Richmond Shoreline Open Space Alliance, CESP urged the East bay Regional Park District to acquire the property. The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) attempted to purchase the land from the landowner who instead announced intentions to build a development partly in the marsh, with the matter ending up in court finally and in 2008 the Court rule that the acquisition could go forward and put the price at $6.85 million. CESP and other environmental allies encouraged this acquisition to preserve and restore more than 200 acres (80 ha) of the North Richmond Shoreline.

CESP played a pivotal role in the successful creation of the Tom Bates Regional Sports Complex, opened in 2008. CESP brought its allies together to successfully fight for the creation of a regional sports complex at the shoreline as an adjunct to the Eastshore State Park. CESP (with allies Sierra Club, Golden Gate Audubon and others) persuaded the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) of the advantages in buying a little-used 16-acre (6.5 ha) lot on the shoreline from Golden Gate Fields in the middle of the Eastshore State Park. CESP worked to set in motion a massive cooperative effort among the five cities along the Eastshore State Park and the EBRPD, along with the dedicated hard work of many ballfield user groups, to push the project forward and finally to see its opening for play in 2008. The complex was named after CESP Vice President and Mayor of Berkeley Tom Bates, in recognition of his decades of consistent work in helping to create the Eastshore State Park and for his stalwart leadership among the five cites and the EBRPD in bringing this complex to completion.