■ Bio-filtration art project among approved installations for new park

Benicia this week took another step toward building a waterfront park at the foot of First Street when the City Council approved a master plan and its associated environmental report accompanied by a mitigation program.

The Council also approved the first of three temporary art project installations by Mark Brest van Kempen that will illustrate how plants naturally filter water.

Development of the Benicia waterfront at the area surrounding the south end of First Street has been a long-time dream of some residents and city officials.

The effort to build a waterfront park dates to 1977, when the Bay Conservation and Development Commission gave its permission for several waterfront projects, such as the marina, a fishing pier, boardwalks, homes, commercial buildings, pedestrian and bicycle paths and parking, between East Fifth and First streets.

That permit has been changed 34 times through the years. The 1991 Benicia Urban Waterfront Restoration Plan focused on saving open and historical sites, providing passive and active recreation sites and constructing the First Street Promenade and Peninsula Pier.

The Waterfront Park Initiative, adopted in 2004, changed land designation from commercial zoning to open space and proposed building a park on some city-owned land south of B Street.

Four years later, a citizens group that eventually became a subcommittee of the Parks, Recreation and Cemetery Commission approved the concept of a plaza south of the Southern Pacific Depot. That concept was incorporated in the new master plan.

Work on the new plan that was approved unanimously Tuesday night began in 2009, with a city application for a Coastal Conservancy grant to underwrite development of the plan.

A revised and expanded version of that grant was awarded in 2011. In 2012, the Council hired PlaceWorks, the firm of David Early, principal in charge of the master plan approved Tuesday, and formed a Community Advisory Committee to give residents a voice in the project.

The new plan’s goals, in keeping with the Coastal Conservancy grant, is to improve public access to the shoreline and provide such amenities as educational and interpretive displays for visitors; increase opportunities for passive recreation and use of non-motorized boats; and restore existing tidal wetlands and wildlife habitat while improving stormwater management and adapting the area for projected sea level rise.

However, the plan OK’d by the Council dropped one element that had been sought by some residents, a non-motorized boat launch. Early said losing the launch wouldn’t prevent use of the area by users of those vessels, but added that the local tide wasn’t high enough often enough to justify the additional construction.

Another strongly desired element that may get dropped in the future is an elevated boardwalk that would let viewers walk above the area’s marshland and learn about its features and importance through informative signs. The boardwalk would be built over the former railroad site.

“We kept it in the plan with the understanding it may be taken out,” Early told the Council. Its retention depends on whether the city can get permits for its construction, he explained.

“There may be problems with permitting, but the CAC (Community Advisory Committee) felt strongly pro-boardwalk, because it connects people to the wetland.”

Palms would line both sides of the First Street edge, walls would be built to provide extra seating, and visitors strolling the park would be able to learn about the city’s history as a former state capital and its involvement in the 1849 Gold Rush, the Pony Express mail service and California’s industrial heritage, as well as about Jack London’s visits and the city’s archaeological and architectural significance.

The plan calls for incorporation of public art throughout the park, not just at certain designated places, Early said. Rain gardens would capture B Street and parking lot stormwater runoff, and native plants and grasses would be used to filter pollutants out of the water.

Informational signs would explain these features, how wetlands help in flood control and how the area is part of the Bay-Delta water system.

Since the Council’s previous update on the plan’s development, several changes have been made to the document the panel approved Tuesday, Early said.

The First Street green has been expanded east of the Southern Pacific Depot at 90 First St.; a “dog leg” portion of the green was shortened to protect mitigation areas; existing seasonal wetland areas will be enhanced instead of having a planted ditch-like bio-swale built; and beach access will be improved, he said.

Early said mitigation measures outlined in the adopted environmental report and mitigated negative declaration would address any threats to air quality, biological resources, noise and any cultural, historical or archeological items uncovered during construction.

Early said the environmental report received some comments, mostly from residents who wanted assurances that certain plant species would be protected, best management practices would be used, and Bay Conservation Development Commission (BCDC) jurisdiction over the project clarified.

No one questioned the adequacy of the analysis, he said.

Building the park is another matter entirely, and Early said he’s projected the price tag at $6.7 million. How quickly the park can be built depends on whether Benicia employees can secure other grants, said, and he supplied the Council with nine potential grant sources, not only the Coastal Conservancy but the California Department of Water Resources and Caltrans, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the Wildlife Conservation Board, Strategic Growth Council Urban Greening and Sustainable Community Planning Grants, San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, San Francisco Bay Trail Project and the Association of Bay Area Governments.

“This is a very attractive project for future funders,” he said.

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson said the city’s chances of securing funding could be enhanced with careful wording of certain elements in the park’s design.

“Terminology matters,” she said, recommending that Early reword some walls to be described as a “surge wall that serves as a seat.” She also suggested redefining the rain gardens, using terms she said some grantors may find more appealing.

Getting grant awards takes time, Early said, so his firm has suggested a phased, 17-year calendar for the waterfront park’s development.

He suggested up to two years for design and engineering work, another five years for beach access improvements and new construction, as well as the eastern plaza’s construction and that of the Depot Plaza parking.

Another five years would be dedicated to the bulk of the park’s development. That would be the building of the entry plaza, the Bay Trail segment, B Street parking, rain gardens, an interior pathway made of decomposed granite, the marsh overlook platforms and the First Street promenade enhancements.

During those years, seasonal wetlands would be enhanced, the green would be raised and reconfigured, and coastal salt marsh mitigation would be undertaken.

The final phase would be the building of the boardwalk over the old rail line site.

In another matter that involves the First Street Green, the Council approved the first of three public art installations that would be created by Mark Brest van Kempen.

Arts Benicia has received a Creative Work Fund Grant to underwrite an artist residency for van Kempen, whose media are earth and water, rather than canvas and paint, wood or clay.

One of his creations, in Seattle, illustrates the importance of creeks; another is a filtration system in a six-story parking lot that uses the cleaned water to irrigate plants.

During his residency in Benicia, van Kempen has proposed a series of three temporary public art installations along the city’s waterfront. “I work with land as a material,” he told the Council. While many think of public art as sculpture or paintings, he said, “I work in a different way.”

Each of his installations would last about three months, he said. Timing of the placement would not interfere with other activities that normally are scheduled for the site.

The first would combine a labyrinth design that would filter water brought in from local creeks and runoff sites. The latter two are still being designed and would require Council approval.

The maze-like labyrinth’s system of switchbacks would be planted, and those plants would purify the water, illustrating the importance they have in wilder settings. The water would be collected in a catchment tank and a covered container and recirculated using a solar-powered pump.

Benicia Arts and Culture Commission requested and received the Council’s approval for the residency and the first temporary installation. “It looks like we’re on a roll tonight,” said Larnie Fox, executive director of Arts Benicia. “This gives us the opportunity to do something unique.”

Fox said not only can Benicia residents take pride in the art installation, which will be placed on the First Street Green, it also will be promoted as a tourist attraction.

“This is a nice project. It’s safe, and people will understand it,” he said.

“I like the artistic aspect,” Patterson said, adding that she hoped information about the displays would incorporate how such natural methods of water filtration save money, too.