City Attorney Mike Aguirre supplemented his previous legal opinion on the Navy Broadway Complex, saying the City Council delegated some of its authority to the downtown redevelopment board but that the elected body will have some opportunity to oversee development on the waterfront site.
On Friday, Aguirre said the council was not responsible for making sure that the Navy’s redevelopment of the property with handpicked developer Doug Manchester was on par with the 1992 agreement governing the development there. That review was reserved for the Centre City Development Corp., he said.
His new opinion doesn’t change that stance, but answers a different question: “Does the City Council retain any specified control over the development of the property at the Navy Broadway Complex?”
Aguirre concludes that the council will have the authority to:
- seek assurance from the developer that the required public improvements will be made. These include new traffic signals, street widening, landscaping and street lighting.
- apply the city’s construction standards to any proposed structures, excluding the planned Navy headquarters building, which is exempt from city guidelines.
- imposing fees on the development. These include development impact fees that go toward infrastructure as well as surcharges for processing building permits and inspections.
- overseeing the design and construction of the proposed underground parking garage so that its impacts do not interfere with the city’s open space.