Weeks after ordering all Richmond City Council members to appear in court to answer accusations that they tried to foil a legal settlement by hindering efforts to redevelop Point Molate, a federal judge canceled the hearing after concluding the allegations were too flimsy to rule on.
“Given the current record, the Court finds too much ambiguity to resolve the issues at this juncture,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote Tuesday in her cancellation order.
The case stemmed from a years-long effort to redevelop the 193-acre parcel north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, which until 1995 was used as a U.S. Navy fuel storage and transfer facility.
The Guidiville Rancheria of California tribe and Upstream Point Molate LLC wanted to build a casino there years ago but the council rejected that plan. As a result, the tribe and developer sued the city, alleging the council did not legally justify its denial of the project, which cost them millions of dollars to get to that point.
The tribe and developers reached a settlement with the city approved by a federal judge in 2018. Under the settlement, the city wouldn’t have to pay the plaintiffs for damages but it would have to split in half with them any profit made if the land is later sold for development.
Two environmental groups — Citizens for East Shore Parks and the Sustainability, Parks, Recycling, and Wildlife Legal Defense Fund — then sued the city, claiming that the settlement violated the state’s public meeting law because it was negotiated behind closed doors. They also alleged the settlement breached a 2006 agreement and court order that stemmed from another lawsuit involving the city regarding state environmental laws.
A court dismissed that lawsuit in December 2020 but the groups filed an appeal, which is still pending.
According to court documents and meeting minutes, the City Council instructed its city attorney to not fight that appeal and to instead file a brief agreeing with the environmental groups’ contention that the public meetings law was violated.
City Attorney Teresa Stricker alerted the council in an email after their vote that filing a brief in support of those suing the city would violate federal regulations.
Although the city has not filed such a brief, the Guidiville tribe and Upstream last month asked the court to prevent the city from siding with the environmental groups, a move that could jeopardize their profits by disrupting current developer Winehaven Legacy, LLC’s plan to build at Point Molate. They also accused the city of failing to move the project along.
Following a change in the council’s makeup after the last election, a majority of members voted to file the brief and generally oppose building homes at Point Molate.
Before the new council members took their seats in January 2021, the council approved a development agreement with Winehaven Legacy, LLC, a subsidiary of development firm SunCal, to build up to 1,450 homes and more than 400,000 square feet of commercial space on the property.
The city insisted in court filings it had no intention of violating the 2018 agreement and wouldn’t file a brief in the appeal.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote that Guidiville attorneys did not provide enough evidence that the city will actually violate the agreement and noted that a change in the council’s makeup isn’t enough to show the city is trying to sabotage the project.
But she put the city on notice that it would have to file monthly reports to the court to show it’s complying with the settlement and not siding with the environmental groups.