Truth??
Like so many of you… we’ve spent the better part of this hot mess otherwise known as 2020 Doomscrolling, drinking through the obscure bottles of specialty booze in our liquor cabinets and re-learning 5th grade math. Here now, we find ourselves well into a Pandemic summer that has put the brakes on oh so many plans. Except that is, plans for renewal in Downtown Orinda, which has seen a LOT of momentum in the past several months! Given this exciting fact, we realized it was time to put down the wine glass and get back to work. This is a critical time for us as Orinda citizens, and an exciting opportunity to get our valuable opinions voiced and heard.
Here’s a quick update on What’s Up in Downtown Orinda lately…
The Orinda Downtown Precise Plan (DPP) is moving forward. The City of Orinda has been slowly plugging away at a revised Downtown Precise Plan (DPP) that will address at long last a decades old conversation about how to thoughtfully modernize Orinda’s Downtown district. Much work has been done to identify ‘existing conditions’ including current zoning, land usage and structures and Orinda’s DPP would update the City’s downtown development standards and create objective design standards for multi-family residential and mixed-use projects. If adopted, the plan will allow Orinda to meet California state housing mandates while laying groundwork for amenities we want Downtown—everything from retail and pathways, to parking and permitting. To accomplish this monumental and long overdue task, they need our support!
WUDO Action Items:
‘Attend’ a Zoom meeting of the Council's Subcommittee on Downtown Planning. Info on the Downtown Precise Plan (DPP) process can be found here and the link for an upcoming Community Workshop on July 28th can be found here. Announcements for these meetings are in Orinda Outlook. You can sign up for Orinda Outlook here.
If Zoom meetings aren’t your thing, why not write a letter to a local paper showing your support of the Downtown Precise Plan (DPP)? The more letters of support, the better. A sample letter that you can edit to your liking can be found here. Letters can be submitted to the Orinda News (Deadline 8/8) here and Lamorinda Weekly (Deadline 7/31) here.
While you’re at it, send a quick email expressing your support of the DPP to City Clerk Sheri Smith. City Council needs to hear from Orinda residents who support the development of the Downtown Precise Plan (DPP). Even a short note saying YES this is a good idea will suffice! Sheri can be reached at ssmith@cityoforinda.org
And...after much ado, coming soon to the lot at 25A Orinda Way...The Station! Where Food, Family and Fun Converge (their words, not ours but we are here for all of it). The Station has been approved as a multi-use retail + commercial plaza featuring restaurants, shops, offices and other lifestyle experiences. We could not be more excited with the final iteration of the project, which checks many of the boxes on our wishlist for Downtown.
WUDO Action Item:
Sign on to become a supporter. The developers need to hear from us to show our support of this project. Simply click on the ‘Support the Movement’ button on the website to sign up to be notified of developments and upcoming City planning meetings where the project will be discussed.
Wow...a lot of progress happening right now. As always, our mission is to inform, educate and inspire you to get involved in helping to make Orinda’s Downtown a place we all want to be. Stay tuned for more info to come shortly on how Orinda businesses are coming up with innovative ways to survive during the pandemic.
~WUDO Steering Committee