Contra Costa Times
From the article:
ALAMEDA -- Increased traffic, the threat from projected sea level rise and reduced access to the San Leandro Bay shoreline were among the issues raised when the Planning Board gathered input Monday on a developer's proposal to tear down the Harbor Bay Club and replace it with 80 single-family homes.
But some residents who turned out to comment on what the project's draft environmental impact report should include wanted the board to consider the fitness club's history, not just its future.
Original plans for the Harbor Bay Isle development called for 44 acres of recreational space, said Tim Coffey of Harbor Bay Neighbors, a grassroots group that opposes the housing proposal.
City officials, however, allowed developer Ron Cowan's Harbor Isle Associates to build on 26 acres of that land in 1976 in exchange for the fitness club, which was to serve nearby residents and have a limit of 1,200 members.
Coffey noted that Cowan said membership now stands at 4,000 in a recent email to Mayor Marie Gilmore and City Manager John Russo.